LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







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A BOOK THAT EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN SHOULD POSSESS ! 

THE POPULAR HISTORY tftti CIVIL ffM! 

We suppose that almost any 
intelligent American of the 
present day, if he were limited- 
to the possession ot three books, 
would select as follows : 1. The 
Bible; 2. A Dictionary: 8. AJ 
History of the Civil War. The} 
great Civil War between thef 
North and South, in the years; 
1861 to 1866 inclusive, was, next 
to the American Revolution, 
the most stupendous event in 
the history ot our great country. 
During those memorable four , 
years, when our fair land was, 
bathed in the blood of its 

fallant eons, the whole worltk 
ooked on with breathless in-] 
terest. It is but natural thati 
an event of such paramount} 
importance in our national 
history should have engaged 
the attention of every promi- 
nent American historian. Al- 
most a multitude of books di- 
rectly bearing upon the Rebel 
lion have been published Yet 
it is our firm belief that the 
War Histories heretofore pub- 
lished are but xneagerly adapt- 
ed to the wants oAhe masses 
of American citizens to-day; 
first, because they are too ex- 
pensive, involving an outlay 
greater than the majority of 
people can afford to make ; and, 
second, because they are too 
lengthy, going so minutely into 
particulars and details that 
they become dry and uninter 
esting. This work is most aptly and appropriately entitled ' The Popular History of tub. 
Civil War." because it meets the popular demand for an authentic history of the Rebellion, 
written in the most entertaining manner and published at a price within the reach of $ v 
The book is a thorough, complete and authentic history, not only of every important ba' 
and naval engagement that occurred during the war, but is likewise very complete ir 
treatmentof the political conditions, sectional differences and other causes which bron 
on the great conflict. Itis just such a war history as every American citizen should poss« 
and will prove of the utmost interest and value, not only to those who well remember, a. 
some of whom participated in the war for the Union, but ehpecialiy to that large class w. 
have grown to manhood and womanhood long since the war closed, none of whom, nt 
having read and carefully studied the history of the greatest contest of the Nineteenth 
Century, can claim to be well informed and intelligent American citizens. 

The new edition of this book, now offered, is greatly enlarged, both as to size of page and 
number of pases, and contains, in addition to the history proper, a sketch of The ©rand 
Army of the Republic, by a prominent officerof the organization, likewise an appendix 
devoted to Anecdotes of the Rebellion, containing a large collection ot humorous, 
pathetic and thrilling uariatives of actual experiences during the war, embracing 
reminiscences of bivouac and battle-field , camp life and picket duty, thriliine adventures of 
scouts and spies, narratives of remarkable heroism, stories of prison life, stories of the great 
Generals, stories of \fr Lincoln, etc., etc. This additional matter will be found quite as 
interesting as the History itself, and renders this unquestionably one of the bestand most 
complete War Hooks ever published. 

"Thk Popular History of the Civil War "is a larere book of 644 pages, 12mo, hand- 
somely printed in large type upon fine paper, and elegantlv bound in cloth, embellished 
with designs in black and gold. It is profusely and elegantly illustrated, the engrat i 
representing scenes of the prominent battle-fields and naval engagements, camp life and 
picket duty, likewise portraits of the great Generals, both Union and Confederate, and 
other prominent men upon both sides who were identified with the struggle. It is a most 
magnificent volume, as attractive in appearance as its contents are instructive and enter- 
taining, and would richly grace any man's library or parlor table. The hook will be 
by mail, post paid, upon receipt of price, only One Dollar. No other first-class his 
of the Rebellion can be obtained for less than five times that sum, and the majority of books 
upon this subject cost not less than $10.00. 




Address all orders: 



r. M. LIPTOX, Publisher, 

No. 3 Park Place, New York. 



7 1886 






<9HE flMEI^IGAN 

L1YE SMI MANUAL, 

CONTAINING 

INFORMATION OF GREAT VALUE REGARDING THE 

CARE AND MANAGEMENT, FEEDING 

AND REARING, OF 

Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Hogs, 



DIRECTIONS FOR THE 



CURE OF £LL DISEASES 



PECULIAR TO THEM, AND OF ALL 



Unruly and Iicious Habits, 




^J WASHI 
NEW YORK: 
F. M. Lupton, Publisher, 
No. 3 Park Place. 

1886. 



COPYRIGHT BY 

F. M. LUPTON 

1886. 






, \o 



LIVE STOCK. 



How to Judge a Horse. — l. Never take the seller's word. If dis- 
posed to be fair, he may have been the dupe of another, and will deceive 
you through representations which cannot be relied upon. 

2. Never trust a horse's mouth as a sure index of his age. 

3. Never buy a horse while in motion; watch him while he stands at rest 
and you will discover his weak points. If sound, he will stand firmly and 
squarely on his limbs without moving any of them, feet planted flat upon the 
ground, with legs plump and naturally poised. If one foot is thrown for- 
ward with the toe pointing to the ground and the heel raised, or if the foot is 
lifted from the ground and the weight taken from it, disease of the navicular 
bone may be suspected, or at least tenderness, which is a precursor of dis- 
ease. If the foot is thrown out, the toe raised, and the heel brought down, 
the horse has suffered from lamnitis, founder, or the back sinews have 
sprained, and he is of little future value. When the feet are all drawn to- 
gether beneath the horse, if there has been no disease, there is a misplace- 
ment of the limb at least, and weak disposition of the muscles. If the horse 
stands with his feet spread apart, or straddles with his hind legs, there is 
weakness of the loins, and the kidneys are disordered. When the knees are 
bent, and totter and tremble, the beast has been ruined by heavy pulling, 
and will never be right again, whatever rest and treatment he may have. 
Contracted or ill-formed hoofs speak for themselves. 

4. Never buy a horse with a bluish or milky coat in his eyes. They in- 
dicate a constitutional tendency to ophthalmia, moon-blindness, etc. 

5. Never have anything to do with a horse who keeps his ears thrown 
backward. This is an invariable indication of bad temper. 

6. If the horse's hind legs are scarred, the fact denotes that he is a kicker. 

7. If the knees are blemished, the horse is apt to stumble. 

8. When the skin is rough and harsh, and does noj move easily and 
smoothly to the touch, the horse is a heavy eater, and digestion is bad. 

9. Avoid a horse whose respiratory organs are at all impaired. If the ear 
is placed to the heart and a wheezing sound is heard, it is an indication of 
trouble. 

Feed for the Horse. — One of the most sensible articles on the treatment 
of a horse is that which is given from a physiological standpoint by Colvin. 

It is the opinion of this authority that the horse's stomach has a compacity 
of only about 16 quarts, while that of the ox has 250. In the intestines this 
proportion is reversed, the horse having a capacity of 190 quarts against 100 
of the ox. The ox, and most other animals, have a gall bladder for the re- 
tention of a part of the bile secreted during digestion; the horse has none, 
and the bile flows directly into the intestines as fast as secreted. This con- 
struction of the digestive apparatus indicates that the horse was formed to 
eat slowly and digest continually bulky and innutritious food. When fed on 
hay it passes very rapidly through the stomach into the intestines. The 



4 THE FA EM. 

horse can eat but about five pounds oT hay in an hour, which is charged, 
during mastication, with four times its weight of saliva. Now, the stomach, 
to digest well, will contain but about ten quarts, and when the animal eats 
one-third of his daily ration, or seven pounds, in one and one-half hours, he 
has swallowed at least two stomachfuls of hay and saliva, one of these hav- 
ing passed to the intestines. Observation has shown that the food is passed 
to the intestines by the stomach in the order in which it is received. If we 
feed a horse six quarts of oats it will just fill his stomach, and if, as soon as 
he finishes this, we feed him the above ration of seven pounds of hay, he will 
eat sufficient in three-quarters of an hour to have forced the oats entirely out 
of his stomach into the intestines. As it is the office of the stomach to digest 
the nitrogenous parts of the feed, and as a stomachful of oats contains four 
or five times as much of these as the same amount of hay, it is certain that 
either the stomach must secrete the gastric juice five times as fast, which is 
hardly possible, or it must retain this food five times as long. By feeding 
the oats first, it can only be retained long enough for the proper digestion of 
hay, consequently it seems logical, when feeding a concentrated food like 
oats, with a bulky one like hay, to feed the latter first, giving the gram the 
whole time between the repasts to be digested. 

Feeding Horses. — Another authority writes as follows: The horse has 
the smallest stomach, in proportion to his size, of any animal. This space is 
completely filled by four quarts of oats and the saliva that goes into the 
stomach with it. Horses are generally overfed and not fed often enough. 
For a horse with moderate work six or eight quarts of bruised oats and ten 
pounds of fine hay are sufficient. This should be fed in three meals, and is 
better if fed in four. A horse's digestion is very rapid, and therefore he gets 
hungry sooner than a man. When he is hungry he is ineffective, and wears 
out very rapidly. Water fills the stomach, lowers the temperature, and di- 
lutes the gastric juice; therefore a horse should not drink immediately be- 
fore eating. Neither should he be watered immediately after eating, because 
he will drink too much and force some of the contents of the stomach into 
the large intestine, which will cause scouring. Scouring is also caused by 
too rapid eating, which can be prevented by putting half a dozen pebbles 
half the size of the fist into the manger with the oats. Give only a moderate 
drink of water to a horse. A large drink of water before being driven will 
have a very quieting effect on a nervous horse. A race horse always runs 
on an empty stomach. Digestion progresses moderately during exercise, if 
the exercise is not so violent as to exhaust the power of the horse. I con- 
sider bruised oats worth twenty per cent, more than whole. They are more 
perfectly digested. I prefer oats to any other grain for horses. Cracked 
corn is good under some circumstances, but I would not use meal or shorts. 
The disease called big head is caused by feeding corn. When a horse comes 
in hot I would give a moderate feed immediately. If the horse is too tired 
to eat I would take the feed away. A heated horse is a reason against water- 
ing and for feeding, for the system is just then in a condition to begin diges- 
tion. A horse will not founder if fed immediately when hot. I prefer dry 
feed, unless the horse has some disease of the throat and lungs. I do not 
< onsider it worth while to cut hay. I always feed hay from the floor, then 
lie horses do not get particles in their eyes. 

Raising a Colt.— A colt is regarded as an incumbrance because he is 
useless until he arrives at a suitable age for work, but it really coBts very 



LI VE STOCK. 5 

iktle, compared with his value, to raise a colt. When the period arrives at 
which the colt can do service, the balance sheet will show in its favor, for 
young horses always command good prices if they are sound and well 
broken. One of the difficulties in the way is the incumbrance placed on the 
dam, which interferes with her usefulness on the farm, especially if the colt 
is foaled during the early part of the spring. Some farmers have their colts 
foaled in the fall, but this is open to two objections. In the first place, spring 
is the natural time, for then the gras3 is beginning to grow, and nature seems 
to have provided that most animals should bring forth their young in a sea- 
son beyond the reach of severe cold, and with sufficient time to grow and be 
prepared for the following winter. 

Again, when a colt is foaled in the fall he must pass through a period of 
several months' confinement in the stable, without exercise, or else be more 
or less chilled with cold from time to time. Should this happen, the effect 
of any bad treatment will be afterward manifested, and no amount of atten- 
tion can again elevate the colt to that degree of hardiness and soundness of 
body that naturally belongs to a spring colt. Besides, a colt foaled in the 
spring will outgrow one foaled in the fall. An objection to spring colts may 
be partially overcome by plowing in the fall, or keeping the brood mares for 
very light work, with the colts at liberty to accompany them alw T ays. A colt 
needs but very little feeding if the pasture is good and there is water run- 
ning through it. He needs then only a small feed of oats at night — no corn 
— and if he is given hay it is not necessary to give him a full ration. What 
he will consume from the barn will not be one- third his value when he is 
three years old, and if he is well bred the gain is greater. 

When a farmer raises his horses he know r s their disposition, constitution 
and capacity. It is the proper way to get good, sound, serviceable horses 
on the farm. It should not be overlooked that a colt must be tenderly 
treated from birth, and must be fondled and handled as much as possible. 
He should never hear a harsh word, but should be taught to have confidence 
in everybody he sees or knows. This is an easy matter if his training begins 
from the time he is a day old. He can be thus gradually broken without 
difficulty, and will never be troublesome. No such thing as a whip should 
be allowed in a stable that contains a colt. Colts should not be worked until 
three years old, and then lightly at first, as they do not fully mature until 
they are six years old, and with some breeds of horses even later. Mares 
with foals at their side should be fed on the most nourishing food. 

To Bit a Colt. — The true way to bit a colt is not to bit him at all; that 
is, let him bit himself. When my colts are one year old, I begin to teach 
them to hold the bit in their mouth. The bit is of pine, some half-inch in 
diameter, and five inches in length. This piece of soft pine is held in the 
mouth by a cord tied to either end, and fastened on the head, back of the 
ears. The colt loves to have the bit in his mouth, because it enables him to 
bring forward the saliva process. He will bit, and work it over in his mouth, 
and enjoys it hugely. He will welcome it, and will actually reach out and 
open his mouth for it, as a trained horse will for a bit. After a few days, you 
can tie strings making miniature reins to this bit, and teach the colt the 
proper use of it. When this is done, he is ready for the regular steel bit. 
Put your bridle on with a leather bit, large and pliant; throw your check- 
line, if your bridle has one attached, into the pigsty: get into your wagon 
and drive off. This is all the " bitting" a colt needs. Treated in this way, 
he will have a lively, yielding, sensitive mouth. He will take the bit bravely 



THE FARM. 



when working up to his speed, but yield readily to the driver's will. A 
horse, bitted in this sensible way, can be driven a forty-clip with the lines 

held in one hand, or be lifted 
over a five-barred gate with 
the strength of a single wrist. 
If you do not believe it, try 
it and see. 

A Convenient Horse- 
shoe. — Among the numerous 
horseshoes lately devised in 
this and other countries, that 
invention in England, by Mr. 
Joseph Offord, seems worthy 
of special notice. Its object 
is to fit the hoof with a mov- 
able but firm covering, which 
can be readily adjusted to 
fit every kind of work and 
road, so that, like its master, 
the horse may own several 
sets of shoes for different 
occasions. The device con- 
sists in having one or more 
perfectly wedge-shaped holes 
in the side and close to the 
edge of each shoe (Fig. 1), in 
which triangular cogs, or 
wedges, are inserted. These are fastened by the fangs being brought, with- 
out touching the hoof, to the outside of the shoe, over which they are 
clenched with a small hammer. The 
cogs do not penetrate the hoof, and 
there is no risk of hurting the horse. 
The holes being wedge-shaped, can- 
not fill up with stones or dirt, and 
the fangs being malleable, the wedges 
are easily removed or inserted at 
pleasure. It is necessary, however, 
to get the holes punched in the shoes 
before the horse is shod, and for the 
coachman to be provided with a sup- 
ply of these patent cogs to insure 
safety on any road in frost or on 
wood. 

As many are accustomed to use a 
cog which screws into the shoe, Mr. 
Offord has prepared a steel wedge- 
shaped one (Fig. 2) for this purpose. 
The screw cogs are, of course, more 
expensive. In using them the shoe 
has to be drilled and tapped with 
one or more holes before the horse is shod. The cogs are inserted into these 
holes when needed, or removed at pleasure by means of & wrench provided 




HORSESHOE. — FIG. 




HORSESHOE . — FIG 



LIVE STOCK. 7 

for this purpose. We give two illustrations, reproduced from the Agricul- 
tural Gazette, showing both these methods, with the punch, wrench, and 
cogs, both cf which have stood the test of many years' experience, and have 
given great satisfaction. 

To Break Horses from Pulling at the Halter— Two methods of 
breaking a horse of this habit are here illustrated, as follows: 




TO BREAK HORSES FROM PULLING AT THE HALTER.— FIG. 1. 



Fig. 1.— Get a strong half-inch cord twenty -two feet in length; put the 
center under the tail like a crupper; twist them a few times as you bring 
them forward over the back; pass for- 
ward on each side of the body, the 
pass them forward through the halter 
below the jaw. Tie firmly to a tree, 
post, or stall, and excite the animal by 
any means that will cause him to pull, 
until the habit is overcome. You may 
even whip across the nose keenly until 
there is perfect submission, which will 
not require long. Hitch in this way 
for a few days, or so long as there is 
is any predisposition to pull on the 
halter. 

Fig. 2.— This contrivance consists 
of an ordinary ring halter, with the 
two side rings connected by a strong, 
flexible cord. Whenever the horse 
pulls, the inner part of the cord is 
drawn forcibly against his jaw, and 
the effect is a severer punishment than 
he is willing to endure. TO break a horse from pulling 

AT A HALTER. — FIG. 2. 

Warts on Horses. — X correspon- 
dent of an English agricultural journal writes: " Inquiries are made for a 
cure for warts on horses, mules, and cattle. Many remedies are prescribed 




8 THE FARM. 

—many barbarous and cruel to the animal. I will give you a remedy often 
tried, and never known to fail. Anoint the wart three times with clean, 
fresh hog's lard, about two days between times. I have had warts on my 
horses— bleeding warts, of large size, rattling warts and seed warts, to the 
number of more than one hundred on one horse's head. I have never been 
able to find the warts for the third application of the lard. All disappear 
after the second application. I have sent this prescription to several agri- 
cultural papers, hoping it would be of some use to farmers. But they all 
seem slow to believe, perhaps, because the remedy is at hand and costs no- 
thing. I own I was slow to believe myself; but, having a fine young mare 
with large bleeding warts, that covered parts of the bridle and girths with 
blood whenever used, I thought there would be no harm in trying lard on 
them. When the mare was got up for the third application, there were no 
warts, and the scars are there now, after more than fifteen years, with very 
little change. I may say that for cuts, bruises, galls, etc., the application of 
fresh lard — either for man or beast— is worth more than any patent liniment 
in use. It will remove pain instantly, and does not irritate raw flesh, as all 
liniments do. 

Stumbling Horses. — The Pittsburg Stockman says: " Some good horses 
are addicted to stumbling while walking or moving in a slow trot. A well- 
versed veterinarian states that there are two causes that would tend to pro- 
duce this faulty action; one a general weakness in the muscular system, 
such as would be noticed in a tired horse; the other a weakness of the ex- 
terior muscles of the leg, brought about by carrying too much weight on the 
toe. To effect a cure, he adds, lighten the weight of each front shoe about 
four ounces; have the toe of the shoe made of steel instead of iron, it will 
wear longer, have it rounded off about the same as it would be when one- 
third worn out, in order to prevent tripping, allow one week's rest; have the 
legs showered for a few minutes at a time with cold water through a hose, 
in order to create a spray; then rub dry briskly, from the chest down to the 
foot. Give walking exercise daily this week, for about an hour, twice a day. 
When you commence driving again omit the slow jog— either walk or send 
him along at a sharp trot for a mile or two, then walk away, but do not 
speed for at least several weeks. By this means the habit of stumbling 
from either of the above causes will be pretty well overcome. 

Cure for Balky Horse. — Hermann Koon, my German neighbor, writes 
a correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, is as patient a man as belongs to 
that patient race. Coming along the road a month or so ago, I saw Her- 
mann lyiDg in a fence corner, under the shade of an elm, quietly smoking 
his pipe. A quarter of a mile or so beyond I saw Hermann's horse and 
buggy by the roadside, the horse evidently tied to a post. This was a queer 
condition of affairs, for my neighbor is one of the most industrious men I 
know. My curiosity was aroused, and I stopped for an explanation. In 
broken English he told me his horse, a recent purchase, had proved balky, 
had stopped near where he now stood and no amount of coaxing could in- 
duce him to go on. Hermann did not curse the animal, he did not lash it 
with his whip, beat it with a club, build a fire under its belly, nor resort to 
any other of the brutal means some men use in such cases. He quietly got 
out of the buggy, tied the horse to the post, and walked off. Hermann had 
been taking it easy under the tree for three long hours. He thought the horse 
would be glad to go now if requested to do so. It had once before stopped 



LIVE STOCK. 9 

with him, and after a patient waiting alone, for an hour, it went on all right. 
He expected about four hours, this time, would effect a permanent cure of 
the bad habit. I went on about my business, leaving the stolid German to 
his pipe and his thoughts. To-day I met him again. He said the horse was 
eager to start when he went back to the buggy, and though he has used it 
every day since, no disposition to balk has been manifested. He believes 
there will be no repetition of the offense. Most men think they cannot afford 
to waste time in this way, perhaps, but if the horse is cured he is a valuable 
one, whereas, if it had become a chronic balker, through cruel management, 
it would be worthless. Hermann thought he could not make money faster 
than by saving the reputation of his horse. It is a new system, but Hermann 
says it will work well every time, if the horse is not naturally vicious. It 
looks reasonable to me, and if my nag ever tries the stop game with me, and 
I can command patience sufficient, I will try his plan. 

Kicking Horses — We present herewith a method that will be found 
available in all cases of kicking by horses. The beast should have a good 
pair of bits in his mouth, to 
which should be attached a 
strap or rope sufficiently long 
to reach back between and 
behind the fore legs about 
eight inches, and should pass 
through the girt cr surcingle. 
A loop should be made in 
this, the back end of the rope 
or strap, about two inches or 
more in length. Now take a 
rope about seven or eight feet 
long. (The length of the rope 
will depend upon the size of 
the horse; the rope should be 
long enough to allow of a 
free use of the horse's hind 
legs in traveling.) Pass one 
end of the rope round the leg, upon the inside, so the fastening shall come 
upon the outside, to prevent interfering, and bring it round upon the outside 
of the leg, and pass the end over and around the middle of the rope and wind 
it round the rope upon the outside of the leg, as illustrated. Draw the noose 
up round the pastern — i. e., between the fetlock and hoof— and pass the 
unfastened end of the rope through the loop in the rope or strap which passes 
through the surcingle, and fasten the end round the other leg, as was done 
the first time in fastening. This mode of fastening is simple, is easily done 
and undone, and will not work off, provided the noose is drawn up tightly 
around the pastern. If you have a horse that is addicted to the unpleasant hab- 
it of kicking, try this experiment, and you will find that it works admirably. 

Training Vicions Horses._A new and very simple method of training 
vicious horses was exhibited in West Philadelphia, and the manner in which 
some of the wildest horses were subdued was astonishing. The first trial 
was that of a kicking or " bucking " mare, which her owner said had allowed 
no rider on her back for a period of at least five years. She became tame in 
about as many minutes, and allowed herself to be ridden about without a 




HOW TO PREVENT HORSES FROM KICKING. 



10 



TEE FARM. 



sign of her former wildness. The means by which the result was accom- 
plished was a piece of light rope which was passed around the front jaw of 
the mare just above the upper teeth, crossed in her mouth, and thence 
secured back of her neck. It was claimed that no horse will kick or jump 
when thus secured, and that a horse, after receiving the treatment a few 
minutes, will abandon his vicious ways forever. A very simple method was 
also shown by which a kicking horse could be shod. It consisted in connect- 
ing the animal's head and tail by means of a rope fastened to the tail and 
then to the bit, and then drawn tightly enough to incline the animal's head 
to one side. This, it is claimed, makes it absolutely impossible for the horse 
to kick on the side of the rope. At the same exhibition a horse which for 
many years had to be bound on the ground to be shod suffered the black- 
smith to operate on him without attempting to kick while secured in the 
manner described. 

Galls and Sores on Horses. —If the owner of the horses, the farmer 




ONE OAFSE OF HIDE- BOUND. 

himself, could always be among his work animals, they would receive more 
attention and better treatment; but as he has so much to think about and 
look after, he cannot give this department his careful supervision, and many 
errors creep into the management which could not otherwise be found there. 
There are some horses which chafe more readily than others, while some do 
not have the collars and harness fit them, which will invariably cause galls 
or sores; and even when the harness does fit properly, the warm weather, or 
giving the horse a hard, warm day's work, may cause shoulder or saddle 
galls to appear, which will soon become larger and bad sores, if not 
promptly attended to. Bathing the shoulders, with spring or well water 
hardens them, and decreases the tendency toward galling. When galls ap- 
pear, wash the affected pnrts with good white castile soap (only use the best 
castile and none other), and warm water to cleanse them. After the parte 



LI VR STOCK. 11 

have been dried with a soft cloth or rag or sponge, anoint the parts with a 
mixture of pure glycerine in which a little carbolic acid has been mixed. Do 
this at night after work. In the morn cleanse well again, as above, and put 
on some pulverized alum if you work the horse regularly. , Continue this 
course until the sores are perfectly healed up. 

"Working Mares in Foal. — It is quite common to see or hear inquiries 
as to how near the time of foaling, a mare may be worked without injury to 
her or the colt, on the supposition that it is necessary for her to go idle for a 
month or two before. 

This is not the case; and in the hands of a careful man she may be kept 
at such work as plowing, harrowing, or cultivating without the least danger, 
until she is ready to foal. Of course, fast driving or working to a heavy 
wagon tongue, on rough or muddy roads, or where heavy backing is to be 
done, should not be allowed. The writer has always worked mares moder- 
ately on the farm, when necessary, until it was evident they were likely to 
foal within a few hours, and has known of their foaling in harness, en route 
from the plow to the barn, but never with any bad results. While we think 
it more humane to let a mare have a few days' liberty before this trying 
event, there seems to be little necessity for losing the work of a strong mare 
for any great length of time before foaling, and we would prefer to allow the 
extra holidays afterward. Ordinarily, she will do first-rate work with a ten 
days' vacation, provided that she is not put immediately to work that is too 
severe, and fed partly with something else than corn. 

Kicking in tlie Stall. — The habit of kicking in the stable arises from 
idleness. Regular day work is the best remedy, but when that is not suffi- 
cient, a branch or two of some prickly shrub, nailed to the posts, will often 
stop the habit, care being taken to arrange it so as not to prevent the animal 
from lying down and obtaining needed rest. Mares are supposed to be 
much more subject to this vice than geldings or stallions; but so far as our 
personal experience goes, there is little difference. A broad leather strap, 
to which is tied a small wooden log, are commonly applied to one or both 
legs, but they are not always sufficient. A heavier weight than two pounds 
should not be used, for if a horse is frightened by it, he may kick worse and 
do himself injury. When, however, he is well used to a wooden log, and 
has got over his first alarm, a heavier one may be put on if required. The 
strap, which should be broad, is buckled around the leg above the fetlock, 
and the weight suspended from it, which should not reach farther down than 
an inch and a half above the coronet, as the coronet would inflame to a mis- 
chievous extent if bruised. Sometimes a weight is required for each leg, if 
the animal kicks at both stall posts. Occasionally, when all other remedies 
fail, the practice will cease when the animal be turned loose in a roomy box 
stall. 

Reining Horses. —The habit of reining in horses very tightly finds less 
favor with many persons than it did. It is not easy to see in what way the 
habit originated. If a man has a load of anything to pull, he wishes to get 
his head as far forward as possible to pull with ease. But the horse is de- 
nied this. His head is reined back tightly, thereby making it much harder 
for him to pull the load. To our view, a horse looks better, and we know 
he feels better, when pursuing a natural, leisurely, swinging gait. It is as 
necessary for his head to oscillate in response to the motions of his body, as 
it is for a man's hands to do the same thing. A horse allowed his 



12 TIIJL FARM. 

head will work easier and last longer than one on which a check is used. 
Blinds are another popular absurdity in the use of horses. They collect 
dust, pound the eye, and are in every way a nuisance. A horse that cannot 
be driven with safety without them should be sold to a railroad grader. No 
colt should be broken to them. Animals fear noises they cannot see the 
cause of much more than those they can. We would dispense with tight 
reining and with blinds. 

Colic in Horses— This disease is caused by indigestion, over-feeding, 
or by giving cold water in large quantities, or by eating sour grain. If colic 
occurs from eating sour grain, one of the best remedies is a few lumps of 
charcoal. Pulverize it fine and pour on it about a quart of boiling water. 
When cool, strain off and give. If the above does not give relief, stimulants 
should be given, with a view to arouse the stomach and get relief from the 
fermented food which it contains. Purges are of no sort of use for the pur- 
pose of relieving an overloaded stomach, and therefore if inflammation is 
present, their use is positively injurious. The use of saleratus and turpen- 
tine, which is so popular an agent with horsemen, are not always the proper 
remedies. To make use of the former, being an anti-acid it is supposed to 
combine with the free acid in the digestive organs, and thus neutralize it, 
but if its use is persisted in, it will injure the mucous membrane of the 
stomach. Turpentine is a powerful irritant, and it should never be made 
use of except by those who understand its action, and neutralize it by mix- 
ing it with linseed oil. The following has been used with good results, and 
can be recommended as safe and efficacious: Sulphuric ether, 1 1-2 ounces; 
oil of pepperment, 2 ounces; water, 16 ounces. Mix and shake well before 
giving. If not relieved, give again in half an hour, and an injection com- 
posed of soap suds to be thrown into the rectum. 

Dr. N. Rowe, of Chicago, gives the following as the best simple remedy 
for colic in a horse: If it is ordinary colic, or gripes without flatulence, give 
him a dose of whisky, say from two to four ounces, that being generally 
handy; or a strong dose of peppermint or spearmint tea, hot; but if a drug 
store is near, give from one to two ounces each of laudanum and spirits of 
nitre; repeat the dose in half an hour if necessary. If it is flatulent colic, 
the horse bloated with gas, give a teaspoonful of saleratus in half a pint of 
warm water, repeat it in ten minutes; if this does no good, give an ounce of 
turpentine in half a pint of linseed oil; or you may give half an ounce of 
chloral hydrate in half a pint of cold water. In addition to the above direc- 
tions, in all cases give warm water injections, and let the horse remain quiet, 
allowing him to roll if he wants, to give friction to the belly, and give soft 
feed and rest afterward for a day or two. 

The Massachusetts Ploughman recommends salt, and as this is known 
among housekeeepers as useful in colic, we give what the writer says: 
" Spread a teacupful of salt upon the back of the animal over the kidneys 
and loins, and keep it saturated from twenty to thirty minutes, or longer if 
necessary. If the attack is severe, drench with salt water. I have a valua- 
ble bull, weighing nineteen or twenty hundred pounds, which had a severe 
attack of colic a year ago last summer. I applied salt to his back as above, 
and it being difficult to drench, we put a wooden bit into his mouth, keeping 
it open about two inches, and spread salt upon his tongue, which, together 
with the salt upon his back, relieved him at once, and within a very short 
time equilibrium appeared fully restored. I have for several years past 
successfully applied this treatment to other animals in my herd." 



LIVE STOCK. 13 

An officer who commanded artillery during the late war used the follow- 
ing simple remedy for colic in horses, which he has tried with perfect suc- 
cess in hundreds of cases: Rub the horse well between the fore legs and 
around the girth with spirits of turpentine. Immediately relief follows. 

Another remedy is the following: Take some good home-made soap, and 
make about half a gallon of warm soap suds; then take a quart bottle, fill it, 
and drench the horse. Sometimes as much as a half-gallon may be needed. 

Bots.— The bot larvae are liable to be found domiciled in the horse at any 
and at all times. It only does noticeable damage when the number accumu- 
lates in the passages, or when there is some disturbance in the digestion of 
the horse, when, it is said, it cuts through the membrane of the stomach, 
causing death to ensue. The bot-fly lays its eggs in the hair of the horse, 
about the flanks and front legs, where they get to the tongue, and from 
thence are swallowed and hatch in the stomach. They live a certain period 
of time and are discharged, to become flies again. Several doses are recom- 
mended to be given to dislodge the grub, but when it is doing no perceptible 
harm many horsemen prefer to let it alone rather than medicate the horse. 
But some remove them by giving powdered aloes, asafoetida, each one- 
fourth ounce; mix in hot water, and when cold add oil of turpentine, sul- 
phuric ether, each one ounce. Give in linseed tea as a drench. 

Another authority says: Bots in horses may be known by the animals oc- 
casionally nipping at their sides, and also by red pimples rising on the inner 
surface of the upper lip, which may be plainly seen by turning the lip up. 
The cure is effected by taking two quarts new milk, one quart of molasses, 
and giving the horse the whole amount. In fifteen minutes afterward give 
two quarts warm sage tea; thirty minutes after give one pint of currier's oil, 
or enough to operate as physic. The cure will be complete, as the milk and 
molasses cause the bots to let go, the tea puckers them up, and the oil car- 
ries them entirely away. 

Another remedy is as follows: Give the animal one quart of sage tea, in 
which a large teaspoonful of soda or saleratus is dissolved. If not relieved 
in one hour, repeat the dose, and repeat hourly until relief is obtained. 

Founder. — Founder consists of inflammation of the laminae, or leaves of 
the hoof— the most sensitive portions of the foot, which serve to connect the 
interior part to the outer protecting covering of horn. It may be very severe 
and acute, or a simple stiffness of the limbs and muscles. In this case two 
drams of lobelia |may be given, and the limbs bathed with hot water and 
rubbed with liniment or kerosene oil. This may be continued for three or 
four days. Warm blanketing, with hot fomentations, will be useful. When 
the horse suffers very much, and the feet are hot and painful, a pound of 
salts should be given, followed by twenty-drop doses of tincture of aconite; 
die feet enveloped in large poultices of bran, or even sawdust, steeped in hot 
water, and the legs bathed in hot water and wrapped up. A deep, soft bed 
should be given, and the horse induced to lie down. After the worst symp- 
toms are over the hoof and sole should be rasped down and the feet kept in 
a puddle of clay and water. The shoes should be removed. 

The following remedy, says an experienced farmer, of Texas, is a sure 
cure for founder, viz: "A large tablespoonful of pulverized alum and a 
tablespoonful of pulverized saltpetre mixed. Moisten the dose and admin- 
ister it by pulling out the tongue and placing the spoon as far back in the 
mouth as possible." 



14 THE FARM. 

Heaves—If you want to have no trouble with heaves in your horses be 
sure that they are fed no dusty and dirty hay, which is the prolific source of 
this annoyance. Ordinary clean hay can always be fed with safety if prop- 
erly cut up, moistened, and mixed with ground grain; but to feed the musty 
or dirty sorts is very injurious. Clover, owing to its liability to crumble, 
often gets dirty, even after storage, and should never be fed without being 
previously moistened. 

Very bad cases of heaves have been cured by simply feeding the animal 
upon cut and moistened feed, of very good quality and in small quantities, 
three times a day. For instance, four pounds of timothy hay and three quarts 
of feed made of equal quantities of oats, corn, and wheat bran ground to- 
gether. With this was mixed a small quantity of salt, and twice a week one 
dram of sulphate of iron and half an ounce of ground gentian root were given 
in the feed. A liberal bran mash every evening will also be very useful. A 
horse that cannot be cured by this treatment is of no value, and may be con- 
sidered past cure. 

The following is recommended by an agricultural authority: One dram 
of tincture of aromatic sulphuric acid in a pint of water night and morning, 
allowing the animal to drink from a bucket. The horse should also receive 
in his food, night and morning, equal parts of powdered ginger, gentian, 
sulphur, cream of tartar, charcoal, licorice, elecampane, caraway seed and 
balm of Gilead buds (chopped fine), the dose to be an ounce. Be careful 
and not overfeed the animal. 

Still another remedy is the following: Asafcetida, pulverized, one ounce; 
camphor gum, pulverized, one-half ounce; mix and divide into four powders; 
feed one every other night for a week. 

epizootic in Horses. — The disease known as " the epizootic " is a com- 
mon one, but is rarely so general as to be justly entitled to that distinction. 
It is simply a catarrhal affection of the bronchial tubes, the lining of the air- 
passages of the lungs, and the nasal sinuses, in fact, what may be called a 
very bad cold, with some fever. It is treated by a saline purgative, as 8 to 
12 oz. of Epsom salts, and afterwards half an ounce of saltpetre daily, with 
warm drinks, general good nursing, and frequent rubbing of the limbs and 
body to excite the circulation. 

siiying Horses. — A horseman whose horse is given to shying, ought 
never to permit himself to evince symptoms of nervousness nor punish the 
animal for exhibitions of timidity. Whenever a horse directs the points of 
his ears in a certain direction, as though distrustful or afraid, the reins 
should be pulled in another direction, thus diverting the attention of the 
animal from the object causing the perturbation. If, on the other hand, 
force or harsh means are used to compel an acquaintance with the object 
feared the horse will be doubly excited, if not unmanageable. We have 
found, in cases of shying or halting at real or fancied objects of disquiet, that 
stopping the horse and using soothing language, answers a very good pur- 
pose. If the object is stationary, the horse, after a short time, will most 
usually advance in the direction of it, approaching cautiously till satisfied 
no danger is to be apprehended, when he will resume his way in a quiet 
mood. But if chastised for shying, he will have two objects of fear instead 
of one, and become more confirmed in the habit of distrustfulness. 

Best Material for Stable Floors. -A Western writer says: "I have 
used plank, macadam, cinders and coal-tar mixed, and clay pounded hard 



LIVE STOCK. 15 

for stable floor, but the best material for the purpose, and which gives me 
the most satisfaction, especially on the score of .cleanliness, is good, hard 
brick, laid edgeways, with an inclination of about one-quarter of an inch to 
the foot; the more level the floor is, the easier it is for the horse. Many a 
horse has been ruined by standing on a stable floor with too much inclina- 
tion. Persons making stable floors should study the comfort of their ani- 
mals. Another great advantage of brick is, that it is always moist, which is 
an object to bo taken into account, as the hoof never becomes dry, conse- 
quently there is no danger of contraction, providing the shoer leaves the frog 
alone, which should not be cut, not even the ragged edges of it. I have used 
the brick floor for the last three or four years, and am well satisfied that 
there is nothing better. 

Scratches on Ilor«e i — A veterinary authority says he has never known 
a failure of carrot poultice for scratches on horses, and he gives the following 
directions, probably valuable, as carrot has an excellent effect on many un- 
healthy sores: Wash the sores thoroughly with warm, soft water and castile 
soap, then rinse them off with clear water, after which rub dry with a cloth. 
Now grate some carrots (about a pint after grated) and bind them on the 
sores. The best way to bind it on is to take a cloth and wrap it around the 
sores, letting the lower edge come close down to the hoof; then tie a cord 
around this lower end, after which put the grated carrot into the opening at 
the top of the cloth, press it down around the sores, then tie another cord 
around the top of the cloth, a little above the fetlock. This should be re- 
peated every day for four or five days, when the scratches will be cured. 

Ringbones on Colts. — For ringbones on colts, first pay attention t« 
shoeing. If he walks on the toe, have a high heel to the shoes; but if he 
strikes the heel first, let it be thin and the toe high. If there is inflamma- 
tion, reduce it by rest and water bandages. Then blister with the following: 
Powdered cantharides, Venice turpentine, and rosin, each two ounces; lard, 
two pounds. Melt the last three together, and when not too hot stir in the 
cantharides. When the pustules appear, omit for a few days. Then apply 
again and alternate for three or four times. Kemember that in all diseases 
or troubles of this kind there will be more or less fever, and attention should 
be given to the general health of the animal, even when no particular symp- 
toms of illness are seen 

Cure for Spavin and Ringbone. — Venice turpentine and Spanish flies, 
of each, two ounces; euphorbium and aqua ammonia, of each, one ounce; 
red precipitate, one half ounce; lard, one and a half pounds. Pulverize all, 
and put into the lard; simmer slowly over coals, not scorching or burning, 
and pour off, free of sediment. For ringbones, cut off the hair, and rub the 
ointment well into the lumps once in forty-eight hours. For spavins, once 
in twenty-four hours for three mornings. Wash well previous to each appli- 
cation with suds, rubbing over the place with a smooth stick, to squeeze out 
a thick, yellow matter. This has removed very large ringbones. 

Treatment of .Sick: Horses. — The practice of forcing a horse to stand on 
his legs, or walk about, while laboring under an attack of colic, is most in- 
human. The same remark is also applicable to the plan of exercising a 
horse during the time he is under the purgative action of a dose of physic. 
He should be moved gently about before the medicine commences to operate, 
but never after. Do those barbarians who knock the animal about while 



16 THE FARM. 

enduring the pains of colic or when suffering the purgative action of medi- 
cine, ever think of what they are doing ? If they were treated themselves on 
the same plan under similar circumstances, they would soon come to their 
senses regarding the management of the unfortunate animal which is placed 
under their charge. 

A Muzzle for Biting Horses—This dangerous habit is taught the 
horses by thoughtless owners or drivers by playing with them when colts, or 
teasing them when full grown. A sharp cut with a whip across the horse's 
nose when he bites may serve to break him from the habit; but when the 
case is worse and incurable, a muzzle for this purpose may be made of 
strips of light hoop iron or of leather. A band may be made to encircle the 
muzzle to which strips of leather or iron are fastened. At the bottom of the 
muzzle a round piece of leather should be fastened by rivets to keep the 
strips in their place. 

How to Save Oats in Feeding. — A saving may be effected in the con- 
sumption of oats for horses by simply soaking them in tepid water. Practi- 
cal experiments which have been made show that by this method the ration 
for each animal may be reduced by a third. Horses whose teeth have seen 
their best days masticate the grain in its ordinary condition insufficiently, 
and younger animals often eat so greedily that the greater proportion of it is 
swallowed whole. This waste maybe obviated by the simple method recom- 
mended, Avhich so far softens the grain that it is more completely masticated 
and digested, and consequently yields more nutriment. Three hours is a 
sufficient length of time to soak the grain, provided the water is not too 
cold. 

How Blindness is Produced— It is said that dark stables tend to pro- 
duce blindness in animals. A veterinary surgeon says: " Darkness produces 
blindness, because nature is outraged in the fact that the sight of the eyes is 
destroyed by want of light to present objects properly to the vision, and 
thus, by continued inactivity, producing blindness. Even so is blindness, or 
imperfect vision, produced by an over-action of light upon the retina of the 
eye, as is always the case when light is admitted by a window directly in 
front of the horse. Nothing is worse than this light, so admitted. Nature is 
outraged, and as a penalty we have nervous, fretful horses, shyers, crib- 
bers, balkers, runaways, and anything but a reliable and pleasant horse." 

Care of Horses 1 L.eg< — Few men who handle horses give proper 
attention to the feet and legs. Especially is this the case with the farmer. 
Much time is often spent in rubbing, brushing and smoothing the hair on the 
sides and hips, but the feet are not properly cared for. The feet of a horse 
require ten times as much, for in one respect they are almost the entire 
horse. All the grooming that can be done won't avail anything if the horse 
is forced to stand where his feet are filthy, for his feet will become disordered 
and then the legs will get badly out of fix, and with bad legs and feet there 
is not much hope for anything. In short, to those owning horses we would 
say attend to the feet and legs. 

How to Tell a Horse's Age. -The editor of the Southern Planter says: 
The other day we met a gentleman from Alabama, who have us a piece of 
information as to ascertaining the age of a horse after it has passed the 
ninth year, which was quite new to us, and will be, we are sure, to most of 
out readers. It is this: After the horse is nine years old, a wrinkle comes in 



LIVE STOCK. 17 

the eyelid, at the upper corner of the lower lid, and every year thereafter he 
has one well-defined wrinkle for each year of his age over nine. If, for in- 
stance, a horse has three wrinkles, he is twelve; if four, thirteen. Add the 
number of wrinkles to nine, and you will always get at it. So says the gen- 
tleman; and he is confident it will never fail. 

Sawdust for Stables— Nothing makes so soft and easy a bed for our 
" dumb animals" as sawdust, more particularly the horse, as it is natural, 
before lying down, either by pawing or stepping back and forward, to brush 
all their bedding, if straw is used, under their hind feet, but would be less 
liable to move the sawdust. As regards injury to horses' feet or lungs on 
account of inhaling the dry dust, we know of a stable where horses are let, 
and I was informed by the owner that he had used sawdust for twelve 
years and never had been able to discover any bad effects from the use of it, 
and pointed out several horses that had been thus bedded for ten or twelve 
years; and had sold the manure at the usual rates, and never had heard of 
any objections on account of the sawdust. 

The Watering of Horses— M. P. Cartledge, member of the Koyal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons, urges the great necessity of allowing an un- 
limited supply of water to horses; and he alludes to the very mistaken 
notion among grooms and others having the control of horses that water 
ad libitum is injurious. While grooms and others drink without stint them- 
selves, they profess to know when a horse has drank sufficient, and so take 
away the pail before his natural wants are half satisfied. Horses will not 
drink to excess if watered frequently, and in their case drinking does no 
harm. 

Cribbing. — Cribbing is a vice which springs from habit more than any 
other cause. It begins frequently from a desire to ease the teeth from in- 
convenience or perhaps pain, at that period when the dentition is perfecting, 
and then becomes fixed upon the horse as a vice. It is not injurious except 
when accompanied with "wind sucking," which is a series of deep inspira- 
tions by which flatulence and belly-ache are caused. When the habit is fixed 
on a horse it is difficult to break it, and the only effective method is to use a 
muzzle which prevents him from thus using his teeth. 

Linseed Oil for Horses. — Linseed oil is not only a valuable restorative 
for sick horses, but is exceedingly useful in cases of inflammation of the 
membranes, peculiar to # the organs of respiration and digestion; it shields 
and lubricates the same, tranquilizes the irritable state of the parts, and 
favors healthy action. Put a couple of handfuls of seed into a bucket and 
pour a gallon and a half of boiling water upon it; cover it up a short time, 
then add a couple of quarts of cold water, when it will be fit for use. In case 
of an irritating cough add some honey. 

Windfalls or Puffs. — Windgalls are puffy swellings occurring along 
the tendons of the legs of horses, below the knee. They are the results of 
sprains or strains of the tendons, and are generally filled with synovial fluid, 
or lymph, or serum. A padded bandage, with astringent lotions applied two 
hours a day at first, adding two hours every day after, until it is kept on 
continually, is the usual remedy. Rest from work is helpful to a cure. 

Brittle Feet — Some horses have such brittle feet that it is difficult to 
keep their shoes on. This is often caused by a sudden change from exces- 



18 THE FA KM. 

sive and long-continued wetness to extreme dryness. The best treatment i8 
to rub the soles and shells of the feet with a mixture composed of the fol- 
lowing: Tar, two parts; beef suet, two parts; whale oil, four parts; beeswax 
and honey, one part each; melt over a slow lire, and mix well. 

Ignorance in Shoeing—Some blacksmiths who shoe horses do not 
know that the frog of the foot should be allowed to come to the ground; that 
it should not be pared down, as is frequently done, nor should it be touched 
when healthy. It is meant to pound upon the ground, and it is the pound- 
ing that it gets that is the life of the foot, and those horse-shoers who have 
not yet learned this very important fact ought to learn it or quit business. 
Most of the diseases and defects of horses' feet come from cutting away the 
frog or by raising it by high shoes clear away from the ground. 

Avoiding Indigestion in Horses — It is best to give a horse water be- 
fore giving oats. The water stays in the stomach a very short time, but is 
quickly absorbed or passed into the bowels, where it is absorbed and goes 
into the blood. The horse secretes a very large quantity — more than four 
quarts — of saliva while eating a meal, which is sufficient to reduce the food 
to a pulp suitable for its digestion. So that to give water soon after eating, 
except in very small quantity, would be apt to cause indigestion and waste 
of the food by excessive dilution. 

Flies and Horses. — A physician writing to the London Daily News 
recommends, to prevent the torment inflicted by the flies on horses, applica- 
tion to the latter, before harnessing, of a mixture of one part crude carbolic 
acid with six or more parts of olive oil. This should be rubbed lightly all 
over the animal with a rag, and applied more thickly to the interior of the 
ears and other parts most likely to be attacked. 

To Cool Horses When Hot. — There is danger of congestion when cold 
water is thrown on the body of a horse when very hot and tired; and yet, 
how many do it ? The better way is to throw water freely on the fore legs 
of the animal. This corresponds to the well-known custom of persons, when 
overheated, bathing the wrists for some time before drinking much. 

To Recruit a Hide-Bound Horse. — To recruit a hide bound horse, give 
nitrate potassa (or saltpetre), four ounces; crude antimony, one ounce; 
sulphur, three ounces. Nitrate of potassa and antimony should be finely 
pulverized, then add the sulphur, and mix the whole well together. Dose, 
a tablespoonful of the mixture in a bran mash daily. 

Sprains and Bruises in Horses. — Dissolve an ounce of camphor in 
eight ounces of spirits of wine; then add one ounce of spirits of turpentine, 
one ounce of spirits of sal ammonia, half an ounce of oil of origanum and a 
tablespoonful of laudanum. Hub in a quarter of an hour with the hand, four 
times a day. 

Flies in Horse Stables.— It is said that kerosene oil slightly sprinkled 
on the floor of the horse stables will serve to abate the nuisance of flies. It 
may be shaken out of a bottle through a hole in the cork. A pint will last a 
week for the purpose. 

Hemlock Cribs — A horse will not bite a crib made of hemlock lumber, 
nor will rats, mice, or other vermin gnaw through it. 



LIVE STOCK. ld 

•Vorms in Horses — Worms in horses are caused by hard work, poor 
food, and general neglect. For ordinary cases of worms, common salt, nu- 
tritious food, and pure water will prove satisfactory. Salt should alway3 be 
kept in the stalls of horses. 

Over-Reaching An over-reaching horse, one whose hind feet is fre- 
quently hitting the forward shoes, should w%ar heavy shoes forward and 
light ones behind. The theory is that the heavier hoof will be thrown a little 
farther ahead than the lighter one. 

Warms in the Rectum. — When a horse is affected with worms A n the 
rectum there should be injected in the rectum, once daily for a week, a 
mixture of one pint of linseed oil and two drams of oil of turpentine. Feed 
at the same time bran mashes and oil meal. 

Sensitive Jaws. — Some horses are more sensitive than others in the 
upper jaw, and will not go up on the steel bar or snaffle upper-jaw bit. In 
such cases have a bit made of plain round leather, the usual size of the 
upper-jaw bit. 

Best Method of Cleaning Horses. — The best thing to clean a horse 
with is a corn-cob scrubbing-brush. It never can scratch his legs, as the 
curr»y-comb of tin does, while it does more work in the same time than curry- 
comb and brush put together. 

Hints to Breeders of Shorthorns. — To learn a trade, is to do things 
precisely upon the same principles, and up to the same general standard 
that experts in the same trade attain to. The principles are simple, though 
the parts are complicated. So of Shorthorn cattle. They are merely ma- 
chines for converting crude grain or grass into bone, muscle, adipose mat- 
ter, and hair; and the whole secret of excellence — the superiority of one 
beast over another — consists in their ability to convert the most crude food 
in a given time into the finest quality of the tissues named, so distributing 
these as to give us a roomy frame of bone in the parts where we want room 
for the vital organs and for the choicest cuts, and thick, fleshy, well-marbled 
roasts, and broad, well-marbled steaks, in the parts where best fiber is pro- 
duced. Such a conformation should be secured as will answer these ends so 
effectively as the engine is expected to generate steam through the consump- 
tion of fuel in the furnace. The conformation of the trunk of the cow is a 
subject worthy of very careful study. The bony frame is of secondary im- 
portance, the vital organs within being of the first importance, and the size 
and vigor of these, if accompanied by a liberal distribution of cellular tissue 
throughout the system, ensures a rapid conversion of food into nutritive 
particles and the disposition of these in the various tissues. Large lungs, and 
large heart, stomach and liver give size and rotundity to the trunk and width 
to the bosom. A large stomach is of the utmost importance, because fur- 
nishing a large surface. From this the gastric juice issues, and when we 
consider the inner surface of the stomach, and the air cells of the lungs, we 
must prize an extended surface in those organs as highly as we do a large 
surface in a steam boiler if we expect great results. Two of the worse faults 
in the construction of a Shorthorn are the following, viz.: the ribs starting 
from the spine in a downward direction, giving a wedge shape to the upper 
third of the chest; the other is a long rir deficient at the lower end, causing a 
curve upward in the lower line immediately back of the fore leg. We doubt 



20 THE FAItM. 

if any other two defects are so hard to breed out as these. A drooping rump 
or low carriage forward may be brought up in one or two crosses, so that 
with after care they may not reappear; but the defects in the chest pointed 
out above depend upon deficient vital organs within. The re-organization 
and enlargement of the heart, lungs, stomach, and liver require many dis- 
creet crosses to accomplish. Passing from the chest backwards, we would 
call attention to the importance of the short ribs being long, and standing 
out horizontally from the spine, forming a level plane forward of the hips. 
This broad, level loin generally keeps company with a round, deep chest and 
is a point of excellence that should always be sought. The hind quarter 
that holds its width Avell back, carries a large amount of meat not repre- 
sented in the quarter that narrows in rapidly from the hip back. A perfect 
symmetrically-organized frame, with the fleshy part so well distributed and 
packed as to make it difficult to tell where one portion of the carcass ceases 
and the next begins This is the goal to be aimed at. The third and last 
subject, " quality," we will treat very briefly. No intelligent breeder while 
striving to increase the depth and breadth cf the carcass, loses sight of the 
equally important point, the texture of those parts of the animal that are to 
be consumed as human food. This idea of texture is never lost sight of by 
the fruit grower, and the excellencies which fix the value of the apple, viz., 
fair size, smooth surface, and tender, juicy meat, are the three things upon 
which we base our estimate of a Shorthorn. Now, the common notion is 
that all animals that handle mellow have high flavored, tender flesh. This 
is an erroneous idea, proved every day upon the butcher's block. We couple 
two animals together, expecting to secure well-fattened, ready feeders in the 
progeny they will generally transmit it. But if both the parents have dark, 
unsavory flesh, they and all their get, and all the progeny after for all time, 
will have the same, unless modified and improved by new crosses having 
light-colored, savory flesh. 

Selecting Breeding Males— The first object which any breeder of cat- 
tle or sheep must keep in view is that his stock must be healthy. In the selec- 
tion of a male animal, therefore, the first things to be considered are the in- 
dications by which it may be possible to form a judgment as to his constitu- 
tion. There can be no doubt that this is one of the important points of form 
or shape to which it is material for a breeder to look into in the selection of 
either a bull or ram. It is not enough to observe that they have wide breasts 
or bosoms, but the width which is noticed in looking at them from the front, 
should be continued along the brisket, which should show great fullness in 
the part under the elbows; it is also important that they should be thick 
through the region of the heart. 

Another point to be carefully considered is the muscular system. Great 
muscular power is not only indicative of a good constitution and good health, 
but it has a merit in itself. Large muscles are the usual accompaniment of 
strength of constitution, and it also shows that when ready for the shambles 
there will be a good proportionate mixture of muscle and fat in the meat. In 
both bulls and rams a thick neck is proof of largo muscles, and there can 
hardly be a greater fault in either animal than to have this wanting. Other 
indications of muscle will be more difficult to observe in sheep than in cattle. 
In a good bull there should be a full muscle on each side of the backbone, 
just behind the top of the shoulder blades. He should also have the mus- 
cles at the outside of the thigh full and extending nearly to the hough. A 
bull having these indications will seldom be found deficient in muscle. 



LIVE STOCK. 



21 




Ringing a Bull — We give an illustration of a plan for putting a ring 
through the nose of a bull worthy of the attention of stock-breeders. A ring 
is undoubtedly the safest mode of controlling the bull. Clamp rings having 
two knobs, which press into the nostrils, may be useful for occasional use, 
but a good stout copper ring should be put through the cartilage of the nose 
of every thoroughbred bull before he is four years old. This will last him 
for his lifetime, and whether tied up in the stable or out for exercise, it will 
effectually control him. The old-fashioned plan of inserting the rings was 
by burning a hole through the 
cartilage with a hot iron, but 
this was a cruel and difficult 
process. The plan suggested 
is to use a weapon styled a 
trochar, similar to the surgical 
instrument employed for 
" tapping " in case of dropsy, 
and for " hoove " in cows. It 

is a sharp-pointed, round dagger (the point three-sided), carrying a silver- 
plated shield reaching, from the upper part of the point to the handle. The 
above illustration will further explain. 

The sheath being on the dagger when the operation is performed, the 
whole is easily pushed through the nose, the sharp point of the dagger 
piercing the nostril with so little pain that one man can easily hold the head 
still. The dagger is then withdrawn, leaving the sheath in the hole. The 
ring is then inserted into the end of the sheath, which is slowly withdrawn, 
leaving the ring in place. This is then closed and fastened with a screw. 

These rings should be so 
well made that both the 
hinge and the screw should 
be perfectly smooth, and 
so fitting as to take a prac- 
ticed eye to notice the join- 
ing. 

The manner in which 
the operation is performed 
will be seen at a glance at 
the accompanying engrav- 
ing. 

The ring should turn 
freely round in the incision, 
which, having been made 
with a three-cornered cut, 
will be more sensitive 
against a pull than the smooth-burned hole. Indeed, it is sometimes neces- 
sary with the latter cruel operation to take the ring out after a time and re- 
sort again to burning, in order to make the cartilage sufficiently sensitive for 
the ring to be effective in managing the animal. 

An Inexpensive Relish, for Stock. — Stock men of large experience ap- 
preciate the need of salt for stock, and usually make such provision that ani- 
mals under their care are daily provided with this relish. There are, how- 
ever, many farmers who look upon salt as a luxury enjoyed by their stock 
when placed within reach, but not necessary to their thrift or comfort. Ob- 




22 THE FARM. 

servation and experience have proven to those who have given most at- 
tention to the subject that cattle require for best results the salt they 
crave. 

The French Government at one time commissioned a number of practical 
and scientific men to investigate the subject of salt as a relish for stock, and 
ascertain the quantity required for different animals. While only approximate 
figures could be arrived at in the numerous experiments made to settle this 
matter, a scale was fixed upon by this commission as the minimum daily al- 
lowances for the different animals in ordinary condition. In this a working 
ox or a milch cow is allowed two ounces of salt per diem. Eepeated trials 
appeared to prove that the amount specified produced in milch cows the 
greatest flow of milk. Oxen fed the same amount presented sleek coats, 
while others receiving no salt were rough, mangy, and ill conditioned. The 
scale in question allowed for fattening stall-fed oxen, two and a half to four 
ounces of salt per day, and for fattening pigs, from one to two ounces. For 
sheep, from one-half ounce to two-thirds of an ounce was allowed. One 
ounce was set down as the daily portion for horses and mules. 

The figures given above possess a practical value to feeders of stock, in 
that they represent the respective amounts best calculated to produce de- 
sirable results in the different animals named, and give an idea of the 
amount required by each kind. On small farms with few animals salt can 
be dealt out in small quantities each day, but where herds and nocks are 
numerous, salt boxes and troughs become a necessity, and are in any case a 
convenient and economical arrangement. These troughs or boxes ought, of 
course, to be in sheltered places and at points where animals can have daily 
access to them. Some should be placed at elevations to suit horses and 
cows, and others set within reach of sheep. 

A plan in favor in the far West, and which recommends itself on the 
ground of economy, is mixing salt and hardwood ashes in equal proportions, 
combined with a sufficient amount of water to make a solid lump or mass. 
These lumps are distributed in the trough, where, with diligent licking, 
each animal gets a small quantity, the belief being that they will take in 
this form no more than they really require. In addition to the fact that salt 
is necessary to the thrift of animals, a strong argument in its favor in locali- 
ties where cattle and sheep are allowed extended runs during the day, is 
that it proves a strong attraction, bringing them home at night without other 
incentive. 

Cattle in Cornstalks. — A Kansas farmer writes: If cattle are allowed 
to run in stalk fields for an indefinite time they are apt to die from eating 
too much food of an indigestible character. Cornstalks when left standing 
in the field become woody and indigestible. Cattle when allowed to run, fill 
themselves so full that the stomach becomes clogged, the food heats, does 
not pass off, and the animal dies. For three winters I have fed my cows on 
shocked cornstalks, feeding no hay or straw, and in all cases they have done 
better than when fed on hay. In the winter of 1880 and 1881, I wintered 
3,500 head of working oxen. I bought all the stalk fields that were acces- 
sible, allowed the cattle to run in them three hours each day, when I had 
them driven out. My reasons for so doing was not on account of smut, but 
because the stalks had become hard, woody and indigestible. I lost no cat- 
tle from this management, and returned them in the spring with a loss of 
only two to the hundred. Feeders have fed beef cattle for years on 
shock corn; they consider it the best and safest kind of feed. 



LIVE STOCK. 



23 



Relieving Choked Cattle. — The accompanying engraving represents 
the instruments employed for relieving choked cattle, as recommended by 
Prof. Simonds, of the Royal Veterinary College of England. 

" In cases of choking," says Prof. S., " the amount of danger may mostly 
be calculated by the abdominal distension, for death results from the lungs 
being unable to expand in conse- 
quence of the pressure of the ru- 
men against the diaphragm." 

He says: " In many cases 
prior to unchoking the patient, 
the gaseous compounds which 
are disengaged from the ingesta 
and distend the rumen, must be 
given an exit to, by puncturing 
the rumen, to prevent suffoca- 
tion." 

The instrument for unchoking, 
as shown in the sketch, con- 
sists of a probang and a gag; the 
latter is to be placed in the mouth 
as shown. Two assistants are re- 
quired. One of these should be 
placed on either side of the ani- 
mal, holding the handle of the 
gag, which protrudes from the 
side of the mouth, with one hand, 
and the opposite horn with the 
other. They must also keep the 
head elevated so as to bring it as 
near as possible in a straight line 
with the neck. We give Prof. 
Simonds's instructions in opera- 
ting as follow*: 

"The probang being heici as 
represented, is to be passed 
through the opening in the gag 
and carried carefully over the 
dorsum of the tongue into the 
pharynx, and from thence pushed 
inwards until it reaches the ob- 
struction. Sufficient and well- 
regulated pressure is now to be 
made until the obstruction yields, 
when it is to be driven by the in- 
strument into the rumen. Care 
should always be taken to propel 
the root into the first stomach, and we should never rely on the power of the 
esophagus to do this after we have succeeded in removing it from its origi- 
na'. situation. Want of attention to this simple rule has often protracted suf- 
fering to the animal, and not unfrequently death. The probangs in ordinary 
use are seldom of sufficient length, nor are the bulbs with which they are 
tipped of a proper shape. The instrument should not be less than six and a 
half feet long, and the bulbs should be large and slightly cup-shaped." 




24 TEE FARM. 

Bone Disease in Milch Cows—For more than half a century there 
have heen occasional outbreaks of a peculiar disease in New England, mostly 
affecting milch cows, and commonly known as bone-ail or stifle joint lame- 
ness. Heretofore the trouble has been chiefly confined to hilly sections, but 
seems now to be approaching the valleys. 

This disease, technically called Cachexhia ossifraga, is not confined to 
the stifle joint, frequently affecting the hip and other joints also. In one 
case, where the hip joint was affected, examination showed that the articular 
surface of the head of the tibia or shank bone had been worn through by its 
friction with the femur, or thigh bone, by the absorption of the floating carti- 
lage between the ends of the bones. Similar conditions were noticed in 
other instances. As it is believed this cartilage cannot be regenerated, it 
was at first a question whether the disease was curable. Before investiga- 
tion, its cause was attributed to the phosphatic materials in the feed, and 
this idea has been fully established. Where such materials were supplied in 
the form of bran, the disease was thought to be occasioned by the excessive 
use of such feed, as it was known that such excess changes the bone into a 
sort of phosphate, while the healthy bone is an insoluble phosphate. 

In former outbreaks, bone meal was found to be an effective remedy, and 
in recent instances it has been used with good results. A Suffield, Conn., 
man, of considerable experience, says that two ounces of the meal in a pint 
of bran, three times a week during the early summer and fall feeding, will 
generally cure, if accompanied with plenty of salt. In aggravated cases, 
however, the free use of this material is recommended. Still, care must be 
exercised lest it should be supplied too freely, as an excess is sometimes 
liable to injure the butter, because the putrid, oily matter of the bone is ex- 
creted by the udder as a sort of oleomargarine. But if the meal has been 
thoroughly clarified, this trouble is less apt to occur, and it may be avoided 
altogether by the use of cotton- seed meal, which is rich in phosphates with- 
out containing the obnoxious matter liable to be in bone meal. Bran is also 
largely made up of phosphates, but it is well to add corn meal. 

The necessary mineral element can probably be furnished in hay that has 
been manured with superphosphates, which furnish lime and phosphoric 
acid that are greedily taken in by the plant. Indeed, the recent outbreak is 
accounted for by the fact that where it occurs, little, if any, mineral fertil- 
izers are used. They are now being applied more extensively, and the 
gradual disappearance of the disease will doubtless follow. 

Marks of n. Good Cow. — Those who keep but one or two cows natur- 
ally want them for general purposes, do not want a mere butter cow nor yet 
a mere milk animal, but one which combines both in as great a degree as 
can be found. Such cows are not plentiful, we admit, or at least are not 
often for sale at a moderate price, so that when they are offered, it behooves 
would-be purchasers to be able to tell them. 

We do not believe in very small cows, nor yet in large, heavy animals, as 
neither, as a rule, are capable of filling the bill, the former too often falling 
short in the quantity, while the large ones are apt to run too much to flesh 
to make them profitable dairy animals. The medium-sized ones invariably 
produce the best results, and a heavy milker and a large butter maker is 
seldom fat, as the majority of the food she consumes is converted into milk 
and butter. The head should be fine but bony, with small horns, large, 
mealy nose and shapely ears. The base of the horns and the inside of the 
ears should be of a bright golden color, We have never yet seen an animal 



LIVE STOCK. 



25 



with horns and ears well colored (golden yellow) which failed to make a fine 
quality of butter and highly colored. It is an unmistakable sign. The body 
should be of good size, and the width and depth rapidly increase as it runs 
to the rear or hind quarters. The milk veins should be large and prominent, 
and the udder need not necessarily be large, so it is not meaty, but is small 
when milked out. The teats should be of good size, and only have a single 
hole in each; we have seen quite a number with teats having two holes. 
The hair should be fine and soft, while the skin should be pliable, and 
almost as soft to touch as velvet or kid. In color it should be tinged deeply 
with yellow, especially on the shoulders and flank and along the back. 
Color of the hair is rather a secondary matter, though the best cows are 
generally yellow, tawn, gray or white, with dark marks edged with yellow. 
Black cows but seldom prove to be good general-purpose ones, though of 
course there are exceptions frequently met with. 

Cattle Rack. — We give the following illustrated design for a rack to feed 
cattle from in the yard. We think 
it far superior iu point of economy 
and convenience to anything of the 
kind we have seen. It can easily be 
made by anyone possessing ordi- 
nary skill in using tools: 

The shape, as will be seen, is six 
sided, or in the form of a hexagon. 
It consists of six upright posts five 
feet long (3 by 4 scantling will an- 
swer, or round poles 3 or 4 inches 
through will do very well), and 
twelve boards, each one foot in 
width and five feet long. These 
latter nailed to the posts horizon- 
xally will form the box. To 
strengthen the whole and keep the 
cattle from stepping over the sides, 
nail strips of thick boards or plank 
flatwise across the upper end of 
the posts. Then nail two boards diagonally upon each side, extending from 
the top of the posts to the bottom of the box, leaving a space of about a foot 
and a half in the center on a line with the upper edge of the box. These 
slanting boards serve as braces, and give strength and firmness to the 
whole structure, and make six feeding places for the cattle. If scantling is 
used for posts, it would be well to hew off the corner from each, so as to 
make the boards fit well. 

Mode of Construction.— Nail the boards to two sets of posts to form two 
opposite sides. Cut two strips of boards about ten feet four inches long; 
stand the side upright and nail these strips across the top and bottom- 
across the diameter— then bring the other ends within five feet, and nail on 
the boards across the end; you will then have three sides formed. Nail on 
the other two opposite sides and end. Put on the braces and it is done. It 
can be moved to different parts of the yard, and with care will last for years. 

Economy in Feeding Cattle — There is more waste in feeding than in 
anything else on the farm. Wheat straw, corn-stalks, and even chaff may be 




CATTLE RACK. 



26 THE FARM. 

fed, if properly prepared. With a fodder cutter that not only cuts but 
crushes, corn fodder can be made as palatable as clover hay, and wheat 
straw, when cut into short lengths and mixed with hay, answers excellently 
when grain is fed with it. Cows will always eat chaff if it is mixed with cut 
food. If all such feeding material as corn fodder and wheat straw is cut up 
fine, and well moistened, salted, and mixed with bran, shorts and meal, 
with a pound of linseed or cotton-seed meal additional, a mess will thus be 
prepared that is not only nourishing and healthy, but superior to hay alone. 
It is not intended here to recommend straw in the place of better food, but 
we claim that if a saving can be effected by feeding straw in connection with 
concentrated food, there will be a saving, not only of the hay in the loft by 
reason of the substitution, but also of much that annually goes to waste. 

How wasteful it is to throw fodder and straw over the fence into the farm- 
yard to be picked over and trampled in the dirt Avithout being consumed. 
Every pound of fodder and straw is valuable and can be put to useful service, 
which is very important when the winter's supply of hay seems unlikely to 
last, and when the cold season is unusually long. Nor is it proper to allow 
fodder to remain all the year stacked in the fields, for it is almost every time 
that the winds blow it down, where it remains until fed, but it is not then in 
as proper condition as if well cured and placed under cover. As to using 
straw for bedding, this, also, is wastefully done, as if it possessed no value; 
and if chaff is not preferred for feeding, let it be used as an absorbent in the 
stables, for which purpose nothing is superior to it. A crop of turnips, or 
what may be better, beets, parsnips, and carrots, should be grown for stock, 
not only for their value for feeding purposes, in proportion to their cost, but 
also because they afford a succulent diet in winter when every other kind of 
food is dry, and at times not relished. 

How Good Cows are Ruined — Milking is an art, and the farm hand 
who knows how to milk properly is more valuable to the careful dairyman 
than any other help. Of course, anybody can milk, and some can milk a 
dozen cows before breakfast. The careful manager, however, is not so anx- 
ious for fast help as he is to employ those who are careful. The operation 
should never be hurried, but the milk should be drawn steadily, and, as it 
flows, naturally. Some cows have very tender teats, and the rapid milkman 
forgets this fact in his endeavor to make speed. The cow that is naturally im- 
patient and fretful does not like to submit to rough handling, and her disposi- 
tion is soon ruined by such treatment. With the constant irritation she will 
fail in quantity, and be less productive, just as any human being would fail to 
perform faithful service when laboring under mental affliction or trouble. 
As the udder becomes distended and filled with milk, the desire on the part 
of the cow is to be relieved of its contents, and she willingly submits to it 
for the relief it occasions. The constant practice of being milked at stated 
intervals impresses itself strongly upon her, and she will seldom offer resist- 
ance without cause. When a cow, therefore, that has been a patient deliverer 
of milk becomes fractious, the fault can always be traced to the milkman. 
The careless dairyman is the one who complains of the failure of his cows to 
keep up the flow, and bloody milk, garget and other evils are the results of 
his own bad management. There is another point in the treatment of cows 
that demands attention, and that is allowing them to stand a long time wait- 
ing to be milked. With cows that give large yield it is very painful, and 
when the udders have been filled to their utmost, and the milkman is not on 
hand to relieve them, they become exceedingly nervous and restless. This 



LIVE STOCK. 



27 



will do more to cause a cow to go dry before her period than anything else, 
and many a good cow has been sent to the shambles through diminution of 
quantity, simply because nature has revolted at her sufferings, and allowed 
her to dry up because her storehouse was not emptied of its contents at the 
proper times. She should also be milked to the last drop, if possible, and 
as the last portion of milk is claimed to be the richest, the udder should be 
left with nothing in it. With regularity in feeding and milking, and kind 
treatment at all times, the cow will not only become gentle, and remain so, 
but will milk on several weeks longer than otherwise. An experienced 
dairyman needs help that are skillful, and he knows how to judge the milk- 
man's work by the behavior of his cows. When a stable of cows begin to 
give trouble in milking, it is only necessary to observe the manner in which 
they are milked in order to 
cure the evil. The udder 
of a cow is a very delicate 
structure, and she quickly 
rebels at rough usage or 
improper periods of milk- 
ing. 

To Prevent Cattle 
from Hooking Fences. — 
The mode herewith illus- 
trated will be found a sure 
cure for cattle that hook 
or put their heads through 
fences. Take a one-eighth 
inch annealed wire ten 
inches long; make a ring 
in one end (one inch and a 
half) ; grind the other end 
sharp, to punch through 
the gristle in the nose. The 
animal's head has to be 
fastened securely in the 
stanchions, in order to 
bore the holes through the 
horns, which should be 
done with a three-eighth inch bit; then punch the wire through, and make the 
same sized ring in the sharp end; now take a cord that will run easily through 
the holes in the horns, and tie one end to the ring on one side and pass the 
cord through the holes in the horns to the other ring; the wire should be 
bent up above the nostrils to prevent the breath from rotting the cord; the 
cord should not be very tight when put on, for the rains will tighten it enough. 
To keep a bull from jumping and hooking fence, put on the above and a 
poke with the sword or arm running through a wire ring in the nose, long 
enough to keep the arm from bearing on the wire, and *he animal is at home 
all the time. 

Carrying Milch Cows — To the farmer the idea of currying a cow, 
milch or otherwise, is an absurdity; but to dairymen who have highly-bred 
cows, who take a pride in their business and get the top price of the market 
for their produce, it is a matter of moment, in that it is known to increase the 
milk flow and the butter produce by ten to twenty per cent. 




TO PREVENT CATTLE FROM HOOKING FENCES. 



28 



THE FARM. 



There are many points in the conduct of a dairy, unknown, indeed, un- 
thought of by farmers, that will presently have a prominent place in their 
management, very much to the benefit of themselves and those who receive 
and make use of their produce. 

Among those are: Succulent food, protection from inclement weather, 
kind handling, thorough and careful milking, full and regular feeding, clean 
stabling (when stabled), and an absence of foul odors, good ventilation, 
plenty of light and that thorough cleansing of the skin without which no 
milch cow can perform her duty thoroughly and well. With all these we 
must, to have a " tip top " article of butter, have the washing of the udder and 
teats before milking, and with this an entire absence of the filth accumulated 
in feeding and lounging between milkings. 

Of all these, one of the most important is that of periodical currying, in 
that it cleanses the hide of superfluous hair, keeps it active and healthful 
and void of that peculiar odor so commonly found in milk and sometimes in 
butter. It promotes the secretion and disposition of the putrid particles of 
the animal system which would otherwise be absorbed by the secretery 

glands and be carried off in the 
/>~r ^ milk, and leaves the latter not 
: ' only purer but of a much better 
quality, and gives promise to 
the butter maker of a higher 
color and a purer flavor to the 
butter from the churn, hence a 
higher price in the market. 

Herein may seem lots of 
trouble over details, but when 
reduced to a system they occupy 
little of time, labor or expense. 

To Prevent Cows Kick- 
ing* — We give an illustration 
of a patented device for pre- 
venting a cow from kicking, 
which is said by those who have used it to be effectual. It consists of a light 
iron semi-circle intended to go over the back of the animal, with a joint and 
ratchet at the side, and a wooden block at each end, which fits to the flank of 
the cow, and prevents her from moving her foot forward. The inventor 
claims that it can be affixed in three or four seconds and that its operation is 
neither cruel nor harsh. On the contrary the habit has been entirely cured 
after it is used for a short time. It will doubtless suggest a modification 
that will be useful to farmers without infringing upon the patent. 

Black Tongue in Cattle. — The symptoms are inflammation of the 
mouth, swelling of the head and face, discharge of bloody saliva, and high 
fever marks the first stages. Ulcers soon appear under and on the sides of the 
tongue. Then the throat and neck swell, and if the disease is not checked 
gangrene ensues and the animal dies. The disease is said to yield readily to 
early and proper treatment. Tbe following has proved very successful: The 
animal should be bled from the neck vein. Give him castor oil, one pint, to 
be repeated in ten hours if it should not operate. Then use the following: 
Powdered burnt alum, four ounces; chloride of lime, two ounces; corn meal, 
two quarts. Mix, and with this powder swab the mouth frequently. 




TO PBEVENT COWS KICKING. 



LIVE STOCK. 29 

Lice on Cattle. — A correspondent of the Country Gentleman says on 
this subject: The more common remedies recommended for relieving cattle 
and stock from lice are more or less dangerous to life or health, and must 
be used with extreme care. An unfailing remedy which may be used by 
any one without danger to life or limb would be a boon to many farmers. 
Such a remedy we have in the bee-larkspur of our flower-gardens. A strong 
tea made from the seeds or foliage of the plant can be used as a wash with 
perfect safety. Any part of the plant may be used in making the wash, 
either green or dried. The plant should be gathered before it is frosted, 
and cured and preserved as other herbs are. In the use of kerosene, mer- 
curial ointment, tobacco, etc., great care must be used or injury results from 
absorption; it enters the limbs or other parts of the animal and is often a 
permanent injury. No such danger need be apprehended in the use of 
larkspur. All the parts where the vermin lodge should be well scrubbed 
with the wash, and if thoroughly well done in a pleasant, mild day, one ap- 
plication is sufficient. In former days, when school children were troubled, 
I have heard old people tell their experience in using this remedy to their 
complete satisfaction. Another equally harmless remedy is aloes in fine 
powder, which may be used dry by filling a common pepper box with the 
powder and sprinkling it freely into the hair on the neck, back, sides and 
rump of the infested animal. Rub it thoroughly through the hair and on 
the skin with the ends of the fingers. Leave the animal undisturbed for a 
fveek, then card thoroughly and apply as before. Continue this at intervals 
of a week, till not a living parasite is left. Usually two applications, if thor- 
oughly made, will suffice. 

Another writer says that to destroy lice on live stock he has found no- 
thing better than strong carbolic soapsuds. The soap usually sold under 
that name is not strong enough for the purpose. It may be easily prepared 
and at any degree of strength that may be required. Get a pound of car- 
bolic acid crystals, which may be had at any wholesale druggist's. I get 
them in Boston at a cost of sixty cents per pound. Take ten pounds of com- 
mon bar soap, put in a pan with a little water and heat until dissolved. 
Take out the cork from the bottle containing the acid, and set it in hot water, 
which will cause the acid to become fluid; add this to the soap and stir well. 
Set away to cool and you will have a soap at a small cost that will be strong 
enough to kill any vermin which infest domestic animals, and which will 
cure barn itch or any cutaneous diseases to which they are liable. It is 
good to cleanse and heal sores, and a wash of it will be found good where 
animals are hide-bound and the skin out of condition; it will be found good 
to wash the inside of poultry houses to render them sweet and kill and pre- 
vent vermin. It is a cheap, safe and sure remedy, and should find a place 
in all well regulated premises. 

A stock-grower, writing to the New York club, gives his mode of de- 
stroying: lice on cattle. He says: " I destroy them with brine — any kind of 
salt water will do it. I find two kinds of lice; the blue lice, and I think the 
other is hen lice. I tried red precipitate one year; it killed the lice, two 
yearlings, and a two-year old. But washing the cattle with brine is easier, 
and they get into the habit of licking one another, and are more gentle 
toward each other. ♦ 

Another writer recommends grease. He says: " Insects breathe by 
means of small pores on their sides. Grease or oil that comes in contact 
with the insects closes the pores and stops the breathing. Mercurial oint- 
ment kills as much by the lard in u na by the mercury— that xs, so far as the 






30 



THE FARM. 



vermin are concerned, but not aa to the animals that lick it off from their 
bodies, so that almost any oily or greasy application will be destructive to 
insect vermin that infest animals if it is applied where it will do the most 
good." 

Still another authority says: " A good remedy for lice on cattle is water 
in which potatoes were boiled. For every one of your cattle take two quarts 
of water and eight middle-sized potatoes cut in half. If you have ten cattle, 
you must take eighty potatoes and twenty quarts of water. When the 
potatoes are soft take them out. Get a large sponge and wash the cattle 
freely, choosing a warm day. Comb them with a currycomb, and you will 
be astonished to see the effects of the potato water." 

Cheap Shelter for Stock. — Shelter for stock is one of the great needs 
of farmers. It is costly to build a barn and shed, but for simple purposes of 
shelter farmers might make greater use of their abundance of straw. In 
some localities it is customary to burn this as the readiest means to get it 
out of the way. A much better use might be made of it in constructing 
shelter for all kinds of stock, both against rain and cold. A very good plan 
is to make a frame of poles (as the engraving represents), and stack straw 
over them. This work should be done at threshing time, but if it has been 

neglected it may be done 
at any later time. It pays 
richly in health, thrift, and 
in the saving of food, to 
provide shelter. 

The Soiling System 
with Cows. — It is a ques- 
tion of economy as to 
whether it is wise in us to 
allow the herd the full oc- 
cupancy of a pasture, in 
order to reap the products 
in the shape of butter and 
milk. A large herd re- 
quires a large pasture, and before any estimate can be made in the way of 
profit and loss, the value of the pasting itself, and the probability of what it 
may yield if cultivated, should be considered. 

The soiling system, which demands that the cattle shall be fed at the 
barn instead of pasturing in the field, has many advocates, and the reasons 
in its favor are that fewer fences are required, more manure is saved, larger 
yields of milk and butter are procured, and less space is required. Those 
who oppose the method say that it requires extra labor, and that the health 
of the stock is improved by their having the liberty of the pasture. 

Every consideration should be made, however, regarding the conditions. 
If the stock is kept on farms that are too largo for cultivation, and where 
space is no object, with an unlimited supply of grass that cannot be utilized 
except by being pastured, then the soiling system is not economical, for no 
necessity arises for its practice; but on small dairy farms, where land is 
valuable and the products within easy reach of the best markets, the system 
of stall feeding of cattle is one that should be carried to an extreme, for the 
result will be very profitable, any other method being suicidal in the 
extreme. The extra labor required is equalized by the saving in fences, and 




CHEAP SHELTER FOR STOCK. 



hlYK STOCK. 31 

the care and management is balanced by the savings of the liquid and solid 
manure. Both systems, therefore, are profitable under certain circum- 
stances, the whole matter being regulated by soil, climate, capacity for pro- 
duction, and distance from market. 

Raising Calves. — A stock grower writes: As a general rule, I let the 
calf suck the cow for three days, then I take it away; and after it has been 
twelve hours without food, I give it some new milk — about ten pounds, if I 
can get him to eat it. If, while the calf is running with the cow, you can 
handle it a little, so as to make it tame, it will learn to eat much easier. I 
am a large, stout man, and can easily hold a calf. If the calf is tame, so 
that it will come up to you and suck your hand, you can get it to eat the first 
time without much trouble; but if it is not tame, I get a-straddle of the calf, 
back him up in a corner, hold the pail between my knees, put one finger in 
the calf's mouth, and with the other hand hold the calf's head in the pail, 
and keep doing so until the calf commences to suck. Sometimes he will 
begin right off, and others will refuse for maybe ten minutes; but I never 
had one but what would suck after a while. By the third time I feed him I 
commence to take my finger out of his mouth, and do so more and more 
until he drinks without having a finger to suck. I feed entirely on new milk 
for ten days, then give about half new and halftvvelve-hours-old skimmed 
milk (using the cream I take off the milk on the table); then, after another 
ten days, I drop the new milk, having done so by degrees, and feed half 
twelve-hours-old skimmed milk and half skimmed milk. I work it so for a 
little while; but soon give him all skimmed milk, giving about eleven or 
twelve pounds at a feeding, and feed twice a day, without any meal or bran. 
I give in winter all the hay they want, keeping some before them all the 
time. After a calf is three months old you can give it some meal or shorts, 
if you wish; but I do not think it is best if it can have plenty of milk. I feed 
calves until about five months old, and then commence to wean them by 
degrees. If calves scour while they are being fed milk, I give them about 
two teaspoonfuls of salt. In the summer I feed them their milk cold, and 
it is generally thick, sour milk. In the winter I warm it a little, about milk- 
warm or blood-heat. It is well to handle your calves some while they are 
eating, so as to make them tame, and that is one advantage of raising them 
by hand, for they are generally tame. 

Charcoal for Sick Animals— In nine cases out of ten, when an animal 
is sick the digestion is wrong. Charcoal is the most efficient and rapid cor- 
rective. The hired man came in with the intelligence that one of the finest 
cows was very sick, and a kind neighbor proposed the usual drugs and 
poisons. The owner being ill and unable to examine the cow, concluded 
that the trouble came from over-eating, and ordered a teaspoonful of pul- 
verized charcoal to be given in water. It was mixed, placed in a junk 
bottle, the head turned downward. In five minutes improvement was 
visible, and in a few hours the animal was in the pasture quietly grazing. 
Another instance of equal success occurred with a young heifer which had 
become badly bloated by eating green apples after a hard wind. The bloat 
was so severe that the sides were as hard as a barrel. The old remedy, 
saleratus, was tried for correcting the acidity. But the attempts at putting it 
down always raised coughing, and it did little good. Half a teaspoonful of 
fresh powdered charcoal was given. In six hours all the appearance of the 
bloat had gone, and the heifer was well. 



32 



THE FARM. 



How to Break a Heifer or a Vicious Cow to Milk. A vicious COW 

becomes so only by education, or, as it is sometimes said, by being spoiled. 
The case is much worse than that of a heifer, and when the cow is appar- 
ently cured of a bad habit, it is liable upon slight provocation to return. 
The principle involved in the treatment of all brutes is to employ kindness 
together with the means of proper restraint. In the case of the young or the 

vicious cow, place her in stanchions or fasten her securely. Pass a girth 

either a strap or a rope— around the body, just in front of the bag, letting 
it pass in the rear of the right hip and in front of the left. Draw the girth 
somewhat tightly — more or less so, to correspond with the severity of the 
case. Take pail and stool, and sit down to the milking. The case must be 
a very obstinate one which will give any lasting trouble. The philosophy of 
the treatment is that the strap so restrains the actions of the muscles of the 
hind legs that the animal cannot kick to harm, or get its foot into the pail, 
while the restraint is steady and sure and the punishment not severe. A 
woman or boy can manage an ordinary case. Heifers broken in this way, we 

think, become more thor- 
oughly gentle and sub- 
missive Of course an 
even temper and kind 
treatment must be strict- 
ly observed. 

Feed Rack for 
Stock. — The rack rep- 
resented in this engrav- 
ing is designed to be 
placed against a building 
or wall, under cover. It 
may be adapted to any 
kind of stock by placing 
it at the proper height. 
The cut plainly explains 

its construction. The trough below the slats may be used for feeding grain 

or roots. This style of rack is very popular in Europe. 

Science Applied to Stock-Feeding. — It is often necessary to mix differ- 
ent kinds of food to secure the best combination of flesh and fat-producing 
elements. Experiments have been made in Germany to ascertain what is 
the proper combination of these principles. Ordinary food contains two 
leading elements, one of which supplies the flesh and muscle of the animal 
frame, and the other the fat and heat. These two elements should bear & 
certain relation to each other. In the combination producing the best re- 
sults, the ratio is one of the muscle-producing to three or four of the fat- 
producing. Our common crop contains these elements in very different ra- 
tios. In corn-fodder it is 1 to 10, which is too small proportion of the muscle- 
producing element in proportion to the fat-producing. In wheat straw, they 
are 1 to 15; in oat straw, they are 1 to 16; in German millet, they are 1 to 3, 
so that this, when cut in the dough state, possesses the proper combination. 
In corn (grain) they are 1 to 7 or 8, too much of the fat for the muscle-pro- 
ducing elements. This corresponds to our experience. Corn is too heating 
for work stock in our climate in summer. It is, however, excellent for fat- 
tening animals, In oats (grain) these elements are I to 5, aearer correct 




FEED RACK FOR STOCK. 



LIVE STOCK. 33 

than in corn. In wheat bran, 2 to 8 1-2; in rye, 1 to 6. European field bean 
has 1 to 1.8 (one and eight-tenths), showing too much muscle-producing 
for the fat-producing elements. The proper medium may be attained by 
mixing two kinds of food. Thus corn and peas mixed make the ratio about 
correct. Clover hay is 1 to 3; lucerne, 1 to 2; veUjh, 1 to a little more than 2. 

How Practical Farmers Manage tlieir Cattle. — A well-known firm 
of practical farmers give the following information of the method pursued by 
them: "Unless the weather is stormy, we turn our breeding bulls out for 
exercise half of every day, often with the cows in the pasture, when none of 
them are in heat. After breeding our cows we keep them in a stable, where 
they cannot be with the other cows for from ten to fifteen hours. We have 
a few stalls that are specially designed for cows that are due to calve during 
cold weather, and, of course, these are made as warm as we can get them. 
We turn the cows out with their calves three times each day, until the calves 
are six to eight weeks old, then only twice a day. We rarely allow calves to 
run with dam in pasture, though we put the calves out to grass as soon as 
they have learned to eat it. Feed young calves well on shelled corn, oats 
and meal. Have separate pastures for bulls and heifer calves and do not 
allow them to pasture together after the bulls are three or four months old. 
Our dry cows we winter principally on hay, feed- 
ing very little grain, except to young stock and 
those that have calves at their sides, or those de- 
signed for the show-ring. We breed our heifers 
when about twenty months old." 




Calf Weaner. — This invention relates to the 
class of calf weaners adapted to be attached to 
the central cartilage of the calfs nose, like a 
bull ring, the parts of the weaner being pro- 
vided with sharp points that come against the 
cow's bag when the calf attempts to suck. The 

parts or sections of the device are attached together by a pivot forming a 
part of one of the points. They are held closed by means of a small screw. 
This device is very effective, simple and cheap. 

Training Horns. — If it is desirable to straighten a horn, you may fre- 
quently scrape with a piece of glass, or a knife, the hollow side, which will 
cause it to grow faster on that side; but in that case it must not be scraped 
deeply, for then it becomes weaker on that side, and will be turned toward 
the weaker side. Some scrape the side toward which they wish to turn the 
horn quite thin, and then scrape the opposite side just enough to make it 
grow faster, and that will turn it toward the thinly scraped side. If you 
wish to turn a horn up, scrape on the under side just enough to make it 
grow faster on that side. A very barbarous way to turn a horn is sometimes 
practiced, by searing with a hot iron on that side toward which the horn is to 
be turned. This prevents the growth of horn on that side, and the growth 
upon the other side turns the horn. The horns may be polished by rubbing 
them with fine sand paper, and then with pumice-stone, and then oiling 
them. But this artificial manipulation of horns is seldom necessary. The 
horns of well-fed cattle will generally grow in comely shape if let alone. 

The hair is sometimes oiled to give it a glossy appearance, but the best 
fclosa is put upon the hair by rich and appropriate feeding. Nature, under 
proper conditions, does this work best. 



34 THE FARM, 

I follow Horn. — The first symptoms of the disease are readily seen. The 
animal affected refuses to cat, and shows an indisposition to move about. If 
not properly treated at once, the disease soon becomes so severe as to pre- 
vent the animal from feeding at all, and death is generally the result. The 
old plan of boring the horns and pouring in turpentine should never be re- 
sorted to, as it does no good, and gives the animal unnecessary pain. The 
horns are not effected, and consequently need no doctoring. The tongue is 
the member wherein lies the trouble. By securing the animal's head, so as 
to prevent injury to yourself from its horns, and then pulling out the tongue 
and pressing it downward, over the under lip, hundreds of little black heads 
of so-called flesh-worms will rise above the surface. Take a dull table knife 
and scrape off these black heads carefully and gently; then throw on the 
tongue a little salt or pepper, or both mixed together, which will bring up 
the saliva and set the animal's tongue to working. In a few hours at most 
the animal will begin to eat, and the trouble will be ended. We have never 
known this remedy to fail, no matter how severe the case. 

Taste of Turnips in Milk. — There are several remedies, says tli * * 
American Agriculturist, to prevent the taste of turnips in milk, but we be- 
lieve no one of them can be strictly relied upon as effectual; we will, how- 
ever, give them in order: 

1. The objectionable taste comes from the crown of the turnip. If this is 
out off and thrown away entire, the remainder will not affect the milk. 2. Dis- 
solve a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in a teacupful of warm water, and 
add this to six gallons of milk when first set in the pans. For a single gallon, 
of course one-sixth of the above would be sufficient, and for two or three 
gallons in due proportion. The turnips ought to be given to the cow imme- 
diately after milking. 3. Pulp or crush the turnips so fine as to make them 
quickly and easily digested after eating, and when fed mix with cut hay or 
straw. 4. Scald the milk as soon as drawn from the cows. The best way 
to do this is to insert the milk can into a large pan or kettle about three- 
quarters full of boiling water, and stir the milk until it reaches 80 to ( .)() de- 
grees of heat, and then set it away to gradually cool off. The cream then 
rises thick, comes off in a lump, and is churned quickly. All the above 
remedies are so simple as to be easily tried, and if they do no good, cannot 
effect harm. 

L#eaves for Bedding — An economical farmer writes: " In the scarcity 
of rye straw, and the absence of saw-dust and other material for bedding 
cattle, we have been forced to use forest leaves to keep the horse and cow 
in cleanly condition, and on the whole are much pleased with them. The 
gathering was from the roadside, and along the walls, where brush and 
leaves had accumulated for years. A few basketluls were put under the 
animals every morning, and kept there until they were well saturated with 
the urine, and then thrown out into the manure heap. With a plenty of this 
material, kept dry under a shed, and used abundantly, there is very little 
loss of liquid manure. As an absorbent, it is much more effective than we 
expected to find it. Leaves have a high reputation as a material for the hot- 
bed and the compost heap, and are worth the labor of gathering, in most 
eases for their fertilizing properties. Cordsof them arc going to decay in the 
sight of almost every rural home, and it is the rare exception that they are 
utilized. Meanwhile the fields and garden are famished for want of manure, 
or supplied with concentrated fertilizers at forty dollars a ton. 



LIVE STOCK. 35 

The First Milk. — The custom of weaning the calf from the cow when 
it is only three days old is a barbarous one. We are familiar with the fact 
that cows are sometimes injured by such a course, also, especially if she is 
naturally of a nervous, anxious disposition, she soon learning the habit of 
holding up her milk, and when a cow holds up her milk she has become 
addicted to the most incurable vice known. There is another thing con- 
nected with the weaning of the calf at so early an age, which is the plain 
statement that we make in claiming that the milk is unlit for use, although 
the calf is usually taken away in order that the milk may be sold. Those 
who have had experience in the dairy know that milk from cows that have 
recently come in is ropy, and possesses a distinct characteristic in appear- 
ance from that of cows that have been in service for a longer time. Thus, it 
is not only unnatural to deprive the cow of her calf so early, but to use the 
milk. It also pays to keep the calf on the milk until it is old enough to be 
sold at a fair price. 

Obstruct ert Teals — The more the udder is stimulated to extra secretion 
of milk, so much the more is it liable to congestion and inflammation. The 
pressure, too, of a great quantity of milk in the udder upon the circular 
muscle (sphincter), which closes the end of the teat, tends to set up more or 
less irritation there, and this will sometimes result in excessive thickening 
of the walls and hard milking, or even complete closure of the orifice. The 
simplest and best treatment is to slightly dilate the opening of the teat, once 
or twice a day, with a perfectly smooth probe. A silver milking tube, about 
a twelfth of an inch in diameter, will answer; or, when this is not available, 
a probe of the same size made of gutta percha. A small size will be neces- 
sary at first, and, after a day or two, when that passes easily, a larger one, 
until finally the orifice is easily dilatable and the milking sufficiently free. In 
every case the probe should be well oiled, and introduced with caution, so 
as to avoid injury to the internal parts. A silver tube should be warmed 
before it is introduced. 

To Test the Health of a Horse or Cow. — Iu horses the pulse at rest 
beats forty times, in an ox from fifty to fifty-five, and in sheep and pigs about 
seventy to eighty beats per minute. It may be felt wherever a big artery 
crosses a bone. For instance, it is generally examined in the horse on the 
cord which crosses over the bone of the lower jaw in front of its curved posi- 
tion, or in the bony ridge above the eye, and in cattle over the middle of the 
first rib, and in sheep by placing the hand on the left side, where the beating 
of the heart may be felt. Any material variations of the pulse from the 
figures given above may be considered as a sign of disease. If rapid, hard 
and full, it is an indication of high fever or inflammation; if rapid, small and 
weak, low fever, loss of blood or weakness. If slow, the possibilities point 
to brain disease, and if irregular, to heart troubles. This is one of the princi- 
pal and sure tests of the health of an animal. 

Black Leg. — Black leg in young cattle generally attacks calves in the 
fall when they get the rank growth of feed and are subject to sudden 
changes of weather from rains and frosts. It sometimes attacks thrifty 
calves in the winter when they are in the house and eating dry feed. We 
believe the herdsman can trace the disease back to the cause, and we believe 
the cause is the same in winter as in fall and spring; that is, rapid growth 
from generous feed and liability to sudden chills from being kept in too 
warm houses and exposures to cold while out during the day. Stables 



36 THE FARM. 

should not be too warm, nor should calves be deprived of exercise. Salt- 
petre in salt is used by experienced herdsmen as a preventive; bleeding will 
prevent the disease spreading among calves; for, although it is not con- 
tagious, the cause that produces it in one is apt to produce it in others. 

Treatment of Horn Brittleness — In treating cows for horn brittle- 
ness, a stock raiser in Austria found no good resulting from feeding bone 
meal when the water used from a spring was perfectly soft — that is, without 
mineral matter. But upon changing them to the water of another spring 
containing carbonate, sulphate and phosphate of lime, and chlorate of mag- 
nesia in small quantities, the effects were as follows: 1. The animals drank 
half as much again as before. 2. The cows gave more and better milk than 
before. 3. The worst diseased cows at once began to get better, .and this 
was the first case in which any of them recovered without removal. 4. The 
oxen showed far better condition than could be previously attained on the 
best of food and with the most careful attention. No fresh cases occurred as 
sood as the change of water was introduced. 

Sores on Cattle. — There are many sores on cattle, which if kept con- 
stantly washed clean with cold water and kept free from dirt, would heal of 
themselves. A very careful herdsman says his practice of curing hoof-rot is 
to thoroughly cleanse the affected parts with warm water and soap; and then 
apply warm tar between the hoofs. In very bad cases there will be a large 
core to come out; remove it carefully with the thumb and finger, cleanse the 
cavity as above with soap and water, and then fill it with warm tar. Keep 
the parts thoroughly covered with tar, even if it is necessary to use a band- 
age. Keep the animal in a clean, dry pasture. It is no more liable to affect 
the whole system than any other ulcer. When once cured there is no danger 
of its appearing again unless from the same cause. 

How to Milk, a Cow. — The most economical way to milk a cow, all 
things considered, is to milk the* two fore teats clean, leaving off with a 
pretty full stream, and then milk the hind ones down to a short 
stream, and, returning to the fore ones, milk them to the same 
condition, not touching the hind ones again. This will leave the teats 
empty, and the bag, too. It is a false notion that tugging away at the teats 
stimulates a cow to give more milk; but, on the contrary, emptying the bag 
as soon as possible yields more; then the cow can have the extra time to eat, 
which is a better stimulus than either. A slow milker is never tolerated in 
the dairy districts, and a " stripper " is an injury anywhere. The sooner a 
cow is milked, and all the organs connected with feeding, digestion, and 
secretion are left in their natural condition, the better it is for the cow. 

Caked Udder—When a cow's milk suddenly dries up and becomes 
(.•lotted in the udder, it is probably due to garget or inflammation of the 
udder from some one of many causes. The udder is then hard or lumpy, 
and hot. A remedy is to give the cow at oriee eight or twelve ounces of 
Epsom salts, with half an ounce of saltpetre, repeating the latter in six 
hours. If the milk is difficult to draw, a solution of one ounce of carbonate 
of soda in a pint of water should be injected in the teats with a syringe, and 
then milked out. This will bring away the curded milk which, if left in, will 
make matters very much worse. If the cow is feverish, the saltpetre may 
be repeated for a day or two. To bathe the udder in cold water, rubbing 
and squeezing it gently for a considerable time, is useful. 






LTYE STOCK. 37 

Another remedy is to wash and rub thoroughly with water as hot as you 
can bear your hand. Then rub with a dry cloth. Then apply hog's lard, or 
what is better, grate good yellow carrot fine and simmer it in the lard to an 
ointment and apply and rub aa above. 

Cows "Winter Themselves— Many farmers are accustomed to dry off 
their cows early, milking them only about eight months. We think it im- 
proves the milking qualities of the cows to milk them ten months, but they 
should be well fed. We have a neighbor, who, ten years ago, found himself 
short of hay in the fall, and lamented that he should have to pay out nearly 
all of the product of his cows through the summer to purchase hay at high 
prices to winter them. He had a moderate amount of straw, and we sug- 
gested that the product of his cows from the first day of December, if well 
fed, would pay for all the corn and meal, middlings, etc., necessary to 
winter his cows in fine condition. He tried this, keeping account of pur- 
chases of feed and sales of butter, and found that the butter came out ten 
dollars ahead in the spring. 

Cornstalks for Cattle. — A Maine farmer says: Farmers justly set a high 
value on well cured corn stalks, but some find a difficulty in getting their 
stock to eat them as cleanly as they wish. I have overcome this difficulty 
this winter by sprinkling them with hot brine. I withheld dry salt from the 
stock a while, also husks, and made a brine by putting salt into a watering 
pot and pouring on hot water; gave the husks a bountiful sprinkling and 
fed them the last thing at night, instead of feeding them in the morning, as 
formerly. I think if I had tried this plan years ago I should have saved a 
great amount of fodder that was thrown out and trodden under foot. 

Foul Foot in a Cow. — Cows and horses are subject to a disease of the 
feet similar to scratches in horses. Diseased granulations, similar in ap- 
pearance to the heart of a cauliflower, break out and excrete a thin acrid 
matter. The treatment should be, to dress the diseased part with caustics, 
such as powdered sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) or sulphate of zinc 
(white vitriol), rubbed up smoothly, with clean, sweefc lard, and give the 
animal repeated doses of one ounce hyposulphite of soda, as an alterative. 
The soda should be given every other day for a week or ten days. 

Kicking Cows. — A writer says he once had a very valuable heifer 
which was an exceedingly vicious kicker. To cure her of the habit, he put a 
common garden hoe end in front of her off hind leg, and behind and above 
the gambrel joint of the nigh hind leg. Then sitting down on the right to 
milk, he put the handle cf the hoe well up under his arm and began milk- 
ing. The heifer could not stir either hind leg, and after one week she could 
be milked safely without fettering, and proved to be a valuable and gentle 
animal. 

Warm Water for Cows— Warm water is an excellent thing for cows 
giving milk; it is as good as two or three quarts of meal a day; but if you 
mix meal and shorts with it cows must be allowanced, as they will drink too 
much — enough to diminish the flow of milk. The quantity will vary with 
the character of feed and the cow. A little good judgment is a nice thing 
here, as everywhere else. 

Roots for Stock — The value of roots for stock is not appreciated to the 
extent that it should be. Iu the rotation of crops in England turnips rank 






38 THE FA RM. 

high, and it is not uncommon for a farmer to devote from twenty to fifty acrea 
to this crop. Cattle are kept there in tine condition in winter on raw turnips, 
and the latter also make excellent food for sheep. On rich land the crop 
produces very largely, and a comparatively small space is sufficient for or- 
dinary wants. 

Jumping Cattle. — To stop a cow or steer from jumping over fences nail 
a horseshoe on one forward foot. This prevents the hoof from spreading, 
and consequently renders the animal unable to spring. This is calculated 
to be very effectual. 

Mixing Hay for Stock. — A mixture of one-third clover hay with timothy 
and redtop is recommended for any kind of stock. This mixture*, it is said, 
will produce more milk, more growth, and more fat in stock than clear timo- 
thy and redtop. 

Proportions of Food. — A milch cow, on the average, requires daily three 
per cent, of her weight in hay to keep her in health, an ox two per cent., or 
two and a half per cent, if working moderately. An ox fatting, five per cent, 
at first, and four and a half per cent, when half fat; sheep three and a half 
per cent, to keep in store order. If other food is substituted for hay, or a 
part of it, its comparative value as a nutriment must be ascertained. Thus, 
eight pounds of potatoes are equal to four pounds of good hay, while 
eight pounds of turnips are only equal to one and three-fifths pounds of 
hay. 

Carrots for Stock. — It is asserted, by those who have tested the matter, 
that for stock-feeding an acre of carrots is worth about two hundred per 
cent, more than the same ground will do in grass. This will pay for increased 
expense of cultivation, and leave a fair margin of extra profit. Cattle take 
readily to carrots as a portion of their daily food, and the large yield per 
acre should make them a greater favorite with farmers than they generally 
are. The thinning and weeding appear to be a great drawback to their more 
general cultivation. But with this expense the crop pays well. 

Celery Tops for Cows— A writer in an Australian paper states that in 
many instances the leaves of celery are highly esteemed as food for milch 
cows, and are often preierred to red ciover. The cows are said to eat them 
greedily, and to yield on this food a far richer milk than on any other. Some- 
times leaves are cut up small, scalded with hot water, and given as a mash 
mixed with bran, and sometimes they are fed whole in their natural state 
along with the other ordinary food 

The Best Feed for Cattle._We have seen pumpkins fed quite freely 
with excellent result in quantity and quality of milk; but it is not fit or eco- 
nomical to feed too largely of any one food. Potatoes fed in moderation are 
excellent for milk; but given in too great a quantity they will reduce the 
yield. Turnips or beets must not be given too liberally; corn fodder, given 
as a sole ration, is unprofitable; but fed with half pasture will keep up the 
yield of milk and add largely to the profit of the season. 

Phosphates for Cattle. — A natural instinct leads cattle to eat bones 
when their pastures are deficient in lime or phosphates of lime. If these 
bones are brought home and reduced to a fine powder, mixed with salt, and 
placed in a box or boxes fixed in the biU'U-yard, the cows will lick them and 



LIVE STOCK. 39 

derive very great benefit from them. This will save their teeth, and prevent 
them from choking themselves, as they might readily do with a piece of bone. 
Those who have no old bones should purchase a few, and treat them in the 
way indicated. 

Straw and Bran. — Professor Henry, of the Wisconsin Experimental 
Farm, holds that it is wise economy on the part of the farmer who has a 
great straw stack, and small herd of cattle, and some hay, and who will not 
enlarge his herd, to sell the hay at $7 or $8 per ton, and spend the money in 
buying bran at $11 and $12, and feed it with the straw, together with some oil- 
meal. Good bright straw is made equal to hay by the addition of the protein 
in the bran and meal, and the whole is thus made into a far better quality of 
manure than usually comes from the usual way of feeding the hay, and half 
washing the straw. 

Feeding Bran with Meal — For winter feeding, where cattle are kept 
in stalls and heavily fed, there is no better divisor for corn meal than wheat 
bran. It is also cheap, and furnishes what the corn meal lacks. When cat- 
tle are fed on corn meal as the principal food for fattening, it is apt to clog 
if fed in too large quantities; hence, our best feeders are in the habit of using 
bran as the cheapest and best means for rendering the meal fed more di- 
gestible. 

Rings on Cows v Horns — The first ring appears when the bovine is two 
years of age, and sometimes before. The ring gradually increases during 
the third year, and is fully formed at three years; the second ring appears 
during the fourth year, and is complete at the end of the fifth year; after 
that one additional ring is formed each year. A cow with three rings is six 
years old; with four, seven years old. After nine or ten years the rings are 
no indication of the age. 

Care of Oxen. — Oxen that work on frozen roads, although there is no ice, 
should be shod. The rough, hard surface wears down the hoofs very fast, 
and causes inflammation of the interior; the trouble may not become appar- 
ent until later, when the mischief is difficult to repair. If the feet are tender 
and hot, and a slight lameness is perceived, examine the hoofs between the 
claws, cleanse the feet, and apply the needful remedies without delay, and 
so save trouble in the future. 

To Exterminate Rats and Mice. — An English agricultural paper says: 
" Several correspondents write to announce the complete extirpation of rats 
and mice from their cow-stalls and piggeries since the adoption of this sim- 
ple plan: A mixture of two parts of well-bruised common squills and three 
parts of finely chopped bacon is made into a stiff mass, with as much meal as " 
may be required, and then baked into small cakes, which are put down for 
the rats to eat." 

Garget in Cows.— It is said that eight drops of tincture of aconite dropped 
on a piece of bread and mixed with the food at night, and next morning four 
drops more given in the same manner, will generally complete the cure of 
garget in cows. 

Scours in Calves. — For scours in calves, a raw egg broken into their 
milk is the most effectual remedy. A piece of rennet soaked in milk is also 
good, but we prefer the raw egg. 



40 



THE FARM. 






m 



A Winter Piggery —The object sought in the erection of this piggery 
is to secure a neat, clean, cheap and comfortable shelter for young pigs. The 
structure is thirty feet long, six feet wide, five and a half feet high in front, 
and four feet high at the rear. The roof slopes only one way, and projects 
fifteen inches, to throw water away from the pens. First make the spot on 
which it is to be built a foot higher than the natu- 
ral surface, with stiff, good clay soil. Gravel 
must be put on this several inches deep. Set 
round white oak posts a few inches in the ground 
at every corner of each pen or division. Nail on, 
with double-ten nails, scantling, two by four 
inches. Board up with vertical boarding, one by 
twelve inches. Cover the roof of building with 
the same material, and make slatted divisions for 
the pens inside. Our illustration shows the trough 
into which slops and water are poured from the 
outside. These have a one-inch hole at one end, 
with peg to let off surplus water in cleaning. A 
piggery of this size will hold from ten to thirty, 
according to size and age. It should be built 
facing the south, so as to allow as much sunshine 
as possible to enter the doors. Whitewash the 
j inner apartments for health; also the outside, 
a which gives the structure a pleasant appearance. 
\ The ornamental verge board is sawed out of one- 
*■ inch plank a foot wide, and a one-inch auger hole 
3 put through the center of the figure, as shown in 
5 the cut. The rafters project a foot over the front, 
% which proves a solid basis upon which to nail the 
< verge board. A little Venetian red in some lime 
is good to color the verge board, the corners and 
doors. The doors are made of open slat-work, 
and are furnished with small chains for fastening, 
and strap hinges. This piggery can be built for 
about $35. 



Will it Pay to Steam Fodder J— Taking the 
word fodder in its broadest sense, says the Ameri- 
can Agriculturist, as any kind of food for gra- 
nivorous animals, we may say that it will always 
pay to steam or cook feed for swine, and often for 
cows, in stables containing twenty-five head or 
more, while for shoe]) and horses it will be of 
doubtful expediency, and usually not advisable 
under any circumstances. The cooking of feed 
for fattening swine is ho important as a matter of 
economy, that it will pay, even though done with 
little regard to the saving of labor and fuel. On the other hand, to cook the 
feed for neat cattle with profit, not only should there be animals enough to 
make it pay, but the rations should be so carefully planned, that by min- 
gling of palatable, with less relished and coarse fodder, a saving may be ef- 
fected in that way. Besides fciio object for which the cattle are kept, is an 
important factor to be considered in the feeding, 



he: 



m 



LIVE STOCK, 



41 



The flow of milk is increased by steaming the fodder — the color of the 
butter is, however, injured. The same ration will prove more fattening, 
while, at the same time, there will be little or no waste, if the steam is well 
managed. It is best to have the steamed ration composed of a variety of 
feed, such as corn-fodder roots, hay or oat straw, with bran and corn meal, 
or cotton-seed, or linseed-cake, or meal. The substitution of one kind of 
fodder or meal for another, gives variety and relish. The coarse fodder is 
cooked soft, and the flavor of the roots and of the meal pervades the mass. 
It is not likely that any of the small agricultural steamers can be made to 
economically cook the food for as many as twenty-five or thirty head of cattle. 
When a boiler of several horse-power is employed to do other work, as 
pumping, thrashing, sawing wood, grinding, cutting hay and corn fodder, 
etc., steam may be economically used for cooking fodder. Of this there can 
be little doubt. The steam box in which the fodder is placed for cooking, if 
it is big enough, need not be filled oftener than twice a week, and if, as already 
intimated, every pains is taken in the operation to save in the items of labor 
and fuel, steaming fodder 
for cattle will be found 
profitable. 

Convenient Trough. — 

This trough is designed 
more especially for an out- 
door or field trough for sum- 
mer and fall use. It is very 
desirable with many to feed 
their swine outside of pens 
in those seasons, and every 
farmer is aware that it is 
almost a necessity to have 
the trough arranged to keep 
the swine away, both from 
the person who feeds them 
and from the receptacle into 
which their food is placed while the latter is being prepared. The trough 
which we illustrate is adapted very perfectly to this purpose. It may form 
part of the fence, so that the swine cannot come to the rear, from which side 
the food is placed in it, and the additional advantage is the shelter of both 
trough and animals from storms. 

The cut requires little explanation. The cover is hung on pins and 
fastened by a hook and staple on the rear side to keep it. down. When food 
is to be placed in the trough the hook is unfastened and the cover lifted up 
in the position shown by the dotted lines. By this movement the swine are 
completely shut away, and it is very convenient to place and mix their food . 
A slight effort brings the cover back to its place, and they can then " go in." 
Perhaps sheep feeders might take a useful hint from this plan. 

Pig Raising. — We will suppose that the farmer has a litter of good, 
healthy pigs of good stock, one day old. He congratulates himself that, 
having escaped the dangers which are so thick at the critical period of far- 
rowing, he will have no further trouble. The pigs are lively, and well de- 
veloped; the mother snows no disposition to eat them, and is careful not to 
overlie them. There are still two dangers right before the pig raiser 




COISTVEINTENT TEOUGH. 



42 i in: /mam/. 

into which he may ignorantly run — but which may be easily avoided — which 
have caused the death of pigs by the million. The first is overfeeding the 
sow with rich, heat-producing feed. I think there is no one cause that has 
occasioned so much loss as this. Make it an invariable rule to feed sparingly 
of corn for the first week. A failure to pay close attention to the matter of 
diet at this time will often result in fever, which dries up the milk, the in- 
sufficiency of which actually starves the pigs to death. When the result is 
not so bad as this, the sow loses appetite, runs down rapidly in flesh, and 
although the pigs live they do not thrive, and before weaning the mother is 
a skeleton. Tor the first week feed house slops and bran, with but one ear 
of corn at a feed, and then increase gradually, and by the end of the second 
week you can feed as heavily as you please. The second danger to young 
pigs is that they become diseased for want of exercise. It the sow is kept in 
a close pen and proves to be a good suckler, it is often the case that in two 
or three weeks the pigs get so fat as to die. Many a farmer, with a valuable 
litter of pigs shut up in a close pen, has seen them die one after the other 
until the litter disappeared, and yet he had no idea what was the matter. 
Lay it down, then, as a second rule in pig raising, that young pigs must have 
exercise. 

Still another important thing is a clean bed. If allowed to sleep in dust 
they are likely to die of thumps, and if in a wet place or a manure pile, they 
become mangy, or contract colds and die. But we will suppose that the 
farmer is wise enough to guard against the dangers I have spoken of, and 
has brought the litter safely to the age of four weeks, with the mother in 
good condition, and having a good appetite. It is now time to begin to pre- 
pare the pigs for weaning. Make a pen near where you feed the sow, 
and arrange it so that the pigs can go in and out at pleasure, but let it not 
be accessible to the sow, and begin feeding with milk and soaked corn. The 
quantity must be very small at first, and only what they will eat clean. In- 
crease gradually, and by the time they are eight weeks old they will be eat- 
ing enough so that they can be weaned without checking their growth. If, 
as is often the case, there are in the litter two or three pigs that are not quite 
up to the average, it will be good, both for them and the sows, to let them 
run with the mother a week or two longer than the remainder of the litter. 
For four months after weaning feed liberally. No matter whether your pigs 
are to be kept for breeders, fattened the first fall, or wintered over to be 
pastured the next summer and fed the second autumn, the treatment should 
be the same. Do not aim to make them fat, but get all the development of 
bone and muscle you can. The food should not be corn exclusively, for \j e 
want more of the flesh-formers, and they should have the run of pasture, 
and be fed on bran slop with the corn. Exercise, a varied diet, with part 
bulky food and not too much corn, will give a profitable hog. 

Overfeeding Stock. — Overfeeding an animal is worse in its effects than 
a spare diet. A great many more young animals are checked in their 
growth, and otherwise injured, by overfeeding than by a deficiency of food. 
In illustration of this statement, a correspondent tells the following story of 
his own experience: 

A rather opinionated and willful hired man, who requires the closest 
watching in feeding the stock, in defiance of strict orders, gave some Berk- 
shire pigs some cotton seed meal in their feed, in the expectation that it 
would help them to grow. Their feed had been Bkimmed milk, with a quart 
of wheat middlings to the pailful. Considerable more cotton seed meal was 



LITE STOrrC. 



43 



added to tlie feed during my absence from home for a day and night, and on 
my return the next day two of the young pigs were taken with convulsions 
and severe spasms. They died the next day, when two more were taken, 
and soon after two more. The whole six died in the same way. First they 
slowly turned around and around, then stood with the head in a corner and 
pressed against the wall or yard fence; the jaws were chopped together, and 
they foamed at the mouth. After a few hours they lay upon their sides and 
struggled violently with the legs until they died. A dose of lard oil allayed 
the symptoms for a time, and had it been given at first, would probably have 
saved them. On opening them the lungs were found congested and very red 
in patches, and the brain, also, was much congested, the blood vessels being 
dark blue. The stomach and intestines were filled with cotton seed meal, 
the milk having been digested. So short a case of indigestion, or stomach 
staggers, as it is popularly called, is rare; but the pigs were but two months 
old, and had probably been misfed previously. 

A Convenient Feeding Trough. — We give an illustration of a con- 
venient trough for feeding hogs or sheep. It is especially well designed for 
feeding hogs, and may be placed in the pen, the swing door above the 
trough forming one side. 
If desirable to use it out 
of doors, it may form part 
of a fence. The construc- 
tion is simple. Two up- 
right board standards, 
about four feet high, are 
nailed to the ends of the 
trough to support a swing 
door or partition, which is 
adjusted so that the lower 
edge plays back and forth 
just over the top of the 
trough. The view given is 
of the rear side of the 
trough, and the partition is swung forward to shut the animals away while 
their food is being prepared. When ready, the slide is withdrawn, the par- 
tition swings over the rear side, and the hogs can "go in." Slats of wood 
should be placed across the trough to keep the animals from standing in it. 
By swinging the partition high enough, the hogs may pass under. 

Sanitary Management of Swine — One great fault in the manage- 
ment is to keep too many hogs together in one shed or inclosure. From 
want of proper protection in the way of housing, hogs are very apt to crowd 
together in bunches during cold weather; and, coming into the sheds wet 
and dirty, and being obliged to lie either on old and filthy straw bedding or 
on a wet and damp floor, their sweating and steaming soon produces a foul 
atmosphere, and the bedding, not being removed at proper intervals, gets 
rotten, and adds to contamination of the air. Being thus packed together in 
the building, the hogs, in a warm and perspiring condition, are next exposed 
to the influence of cold winds and wet, by being turned out in the morning 
hours to run in the field among grass wet with cold dew or from rain or 
hoar-frost, or to be fed from troughs in the yard. Among the common con- 
sequences are congestion, cold or catarrh, and, if the so-called hog cholera 




A CONVENIENT FEEDING TROUGH. 



44 



THE FARM. 



happens to be prevailing, they are almost certain to be affected with that 
disease, as their systems, under such management, are rendered predisposed 
or susceptible thereto. In many places the hogs are kepi in miserable sheds, 
no provision being made for proper drainage, the ground sloping toward the 
sheds, which frequently being unpaved, or without proper flooring, are con- 
stantly damp and wet, while pools of urine and filth abound, and with wind 
and sleet approaching from all quarters. In proportion as the standard of 
breeding has become higher, so has the vital force, energy, and hardiness 
become lessened; and the effects of improper quantity and quality of food, 
filthy or stagnant water, faulty construction of houses, and undue exposure 
to atmospheric influences, have become proportionately more baneful. 

A Good Pig Sty. — We furnish herewith a plan for a good pig sty, with a 
detailed description showing the best manner of constructing the same. Our 
illustration represents the ground floor, 25 feet wide by 32 feet long. A is an 
entry five feet wide, running the whole length of the building, with a door 
at each end; it is used for feeding, as the troughs in boxes b, b, b, b, run 
along one side of it. The roof extends only over the entry (a) and the boxes 

b, b, b, b. The boxes c, 

c, c, c, are not under the 
roof. The whole building 
is floored with plank, with 
a slight'depressionin grade 
toward the front of about 
half an inch to the foot, for 
the purpose of drainage. 
The inside partitions need 
not be more than about 
four feet high. The small 
door between b and c is 
hung by hinges from the 
top, so as to open either 
way, made to work easy, 

not reaching quite to the floor. The pig soon learns to push it open and 
pass through, and the door closes after it. When pigs are put into the 
boxes, one corner of the box floor (c) should be made wet, and the pigs will 
be careful not to wet anywhere else. 0, o, o, o, are feeding troughs. The 
height of the building should be seven or eight feet. No bedding is required. 
Keep the floor clean. 

Hog Cholera. —The Lewistown Gazette, published in Fulton County, 111., 
says: "Every paper in the United States ought occasionally to keep the fact 
before its readers that burnt corn is a certain and speedy cure for hog chol- 
era. The best way is to make a pile of corn on the cobs, effectually scorch 
it, and then give the affected hogs free access to it. This remedy was dis- 
covered by E. E. Lock at the time his distillery in this county was burned, 
together with a large lot of store corn, which was so much injured as to be 
unfit for use, and was hauled out and greedily eaten by the hogs, several of 
which were dying daily. After the second day not a single hog was lost, 
and the disease was entirely conquered. The remedy has been tried in a 
number of cases since, and never failed." 

The Washington (Iowa) Gazette says Mr. Donahey, of that place, furnishes 
the following recipe for the cure of hog cholera; To prevent hoge from hav- 



c 


c 


1 f 8 "^* 

c 

1 1 


T 1 


h 


b 


1 . 


,. 


a 



A GOOD PIG STY. 



LIVE STOCK. 45 

ing cholera, quinsy, or pneumonia, use one gallon of soft soap, four ounces of 
saltpetre, and half a pound of copperas. Mix well in swill, and feed to about 
forty hogs in one day. In four or five days give the following: Carbolic acid, 
eight drams, black antimony, two ounces, half pound of sulphur. Mix 
well in swill, and feed to about forty hogs in two days. Repeat the above 
once a month, and it will prevent any of the above diseases. I have used it 
for ten years without a single case of any disease among my hogs. 

A simple cure for hog cholera, says the Kentucky Live Stock Record, is 
an infusion of peach-tree leaves and small twigs in boiling water, given in 
their slop. Peach leaves are laxative, and they probably exert, to a moderate 
extent, a sedative influence over the nervous system. They have been used 
as a Avorm destroyer with reported success. They have also been recom- 
mended as an infusion for irritability of the bladder, in sick stomach and 
whooping cough. The cases of fatal poisoning from their use in children are 
on record, as peach leaves contain prussic or hydrocyanic acid, but as it is 
almost impossible to poison a hog, their use would not be objectionable. The 
specific is worth a trial. 

The report of the Georgia Agricultural Department has a statement to the 
effect that forty cases of hog cholera were averted, if not cured, by turning 
the animals on to a quarter of an acre of clover, to graze for one week. It 
has long been held that this disease springs mainly from malnutrition, and 
too much feeding on corn or other carbonaceous food. The fact that clover 
— a nitrogenous fodder — in this case averted the threatened disease is of 
great interest. The culture and use of clover in the South may through this 
knowledge be greatly extended. 

Nancy Agree, of Missouri, some years since claimed the $10,000 premium 
offered by the legislature of that State for a cure for hog cholera. Her spe- 
cific is as follows: "Take inside bark of the wild cherry tree and boil it down 
with water so as to make a strong solution, and give it to the hogs to drink, 
excluding them from water. It has proven a perfect cure, even in the last 
stages of the disease. I also recommend an admixture of the root of the 
bull nettle." 

A correspondent of the Journal of Agriculture recommends a half tea- 
spoonful of carbolic acid in a gill of milk. This remedy, he states, has been 
successful in every case and not only cures but stops the spread of the dis- 
ease. It is administered from the mouth of a long-necked bottle. 

Tlie Pig as a Plowman. — Farmers everywhere, says the American 
Agriculturist, are influenced by the construction of railroads and other means 
of quick transportation, but none of them more so than those who grow meat 
as a branch of their farm operations. The pork-raisers in the older States 
come in competition with the swine products of the prairie States, where 
the pig is a condenser of the corn crop, and among the most economical 
methods of sending that cereal to market — yet even with cheap freights, it 
will not do for Eastern farmers to abandon the sty, and look to the West for 
their salt pork and hams. There are economies to be practiced in swine 
raising that will make the Eastern farmer successful in his competition with 
the West. He has the protection of freights over long distances which can 
never be very much reduced. The home market will always be remunera- 
tive, so long as pork products are in demand. His lands need manure, and 
that which is made in the sty and under cover, is among the best of the home 
made fertilizers. Herding swine upon pasture, or old meadow, that needs 
breaking up, is not very much practiced, but is one of the best methods of 






46 THE FARM. 

raising pigs. They are as easily confined within a movable fence as sheep, 
utilize the grass and coarse feed quite as well, and perform a work in stir- 
ring the soil that sheep cannot do. The nose of the pig is made for rooting, 
and we follow Nature's hint in giving him a chance to stir the soil. A mova- 
ble yard, large enough to keep two pigs, can be made of stout inch boards, 
about fourteen feet long, and six inches wide. For the corner posts use two 
by four inch joists. Nail the boards to the posts six inches apart, making 
four lengths or panels four feet high. Fasten the corners with stout hooks 
and staples, and you have a pen or yard fourteen feet square, which is easily 
moved by two men. If you place two fifty-pound pigs into this yard they 
will consume nearly all the grass and other vegetation in it in three or four 
days, and thoroughly disturb the soil several inches in depth. When they 
have done their work satisfactorily, the pen can be moved to the adjoining 
plat, and so onward through the season. The advantages of this method 
are, that it utilizes the grass and other vegetation, destroys weeds and in- 
sects, mixes and fertilizes the surface of the soil about as well as the ordi- 
nary implements of tillage. In the movable yard there is thorough work. 
Even ferns and small brush are effectually destroyed. Worms and bugs are 
available food for the pig. And it is not the least of the benefits that the 
small stones, if they are in the soil, are brought to the surface, where they 
can be seen and removed. The pig's snout is the primitive plow and crow- 
bar, ordained of old. No longer jewel this instrument, but put it where it 
will do the most good, in breaking up old sod ground, and help make cheap 
pork. 

Charcoal for Hogs— -We have but little doubt that charcoal is one of 
the best known remedies for the disordered state into which hogs drill, usu- 
ally having disordered bowels, all the time giving off the worst kind of evacu- 
ations. Probably the best form in which charcoal can be given is in the 
form of burnt corn — perhaps, because when given in other forms the hogs do 
not get enough. A distillery was burned in Illinois, about which a large 
number of hogs were kept. Cholera prevailed among these hogs somewhat 
extensively. In the burning of buildings a large amount of corn was con- 
sumed. To this burned and partially burned corn, the hogs had access at 
will, and the sick commenced recovering at once and a large portion of them 
got well. Many farmers have practiced feeding scorched com, putting it 
into the stove or building a fire upon the ground, placing the ears of corn 
upon it, leaving them till pretty well charred. Hogs fed on still slops are 
liable to be attacked by irritation of the stomach and bowels, coming from 
too free generation of acid, from fermentation of food after eaten. Charcoal, 
whether it be produced by burning corn or wood, will neutralize the acid, in 
this way removing the irritating cause. The charcoal will be relished to the 
extent of getting rid of the acid, and beyond that it may not be. Hence it is 
well to let the wants of the hog be settled by the hog himself. 

Iron Hog Troughs — Upon the subject of the best material for hog 
troughs, a writer says: " I make them out of iron, not out of iron-wood, fcut 
cast iron. I grappled with this problem a half dozen years ago and mas- 
tered it. I became an inventor. I had an invention put into the form of a 
model and got the proprietor of an iron foundry to east eight troughs after 
the model. They were put into the different pens and they are there now, 
bright, clean, smooth, sound, and all right, and I expect to leave them just 
in this shape to my heirs. The model cost $18, and the troughs 6 cents a 



LIVE STOCK. 47 

pound, and they weighed an average of at least 100 pounds. The spout is 
cast with the trough in one solid piece, and there are also feet cast and at~ 
tached, by which it is fastened to the floor. The corners are made rounding 
and so is the bottom, so that freezing does not crack them, as the ice does 
not press against the corners or slides, but around the whole. They are 
easily cleaned out, as the sloping sides allow the dirt to slide out before a 
broom, are always in place, and will never wear out. The wear and waste 
and annoyance of modern troughs became unbearable. Now I contemplate 
this part of farm experience with a feeling akin to perfect satisfaction. The 
trough is not patented." 

Phosphates Essential to Pigs— Experiments made by Lehman upon 
young animals showed that food containing an insufficient amount of phos- 
phates not only affects the formation of the skeleton, but has an essential in- 
fluence upon its separate parts. A young pig was fed one hundred and 
twenty-six days upon potatoes alone; 'a result of this insufficient food, ra- 
chitis (rickets, or softening of the bone). Other pigs, from the same litter, 
fed upon potatoes, leach-out-meat, and additional phosphates, for the same 
length of time, had a normal skeleton; yet even in these animals there was 
a difference according to the kind of phosphate 
added. Two that were fed on phosphate of pot- 
ash had porous bones, specifically lighter than 
the others, which were fed upon phosphate and 
carbonate of lime. 




Pig Scraping Table—This table can easily 
be made by a handy man. It is formed by bars 
of wood fixed into a frame. By using a table of 
tliis description when scraping pigs, the water 
and hair fall to the ground, and the latter is ef- pig scraping table. 
fectually disposed of. It is a simple arrange- 
ment, and its construction and use will materially aid in neatness and de- 
spatch. 

Preparing Food for Swine. — A writer gives the following opinion: 
"The present practice with the greater number, I believe, is to prepare food 
for pigs either by steeping, steaming, or boiling, under the belief that cook- 
ing in any shape is better than giving in the raw state. I am not at present 
prepared to say definitely what other kinds of food may do, raw or cooked, 
with pigs or other domesticated animals, or how the other animals would 
thrive with peas or corn, raw or boiled; but I now assert on the strongest 
possible grounds — by evidence indisputable, again and again proved by 
actual trials in various temperatures, with a variety of the same animals, 
variously conducted — that for fast and cheap production of pork, raw peas 
are fifty per cent, better than cooked peas or Indian com in any shape." 

Hogs as Producers of Manure. — One hog, kept to the age of one year, 
if furnished with suitable material, will convert a cartload per month into a 
fertilizer which will produce a good crop of corn. Twelve loads per year 
multiplied by the number of hogs usually kept by our farmers would make 
sufficient fertilizing substance to grow the corn used by them; or, in other 
words, the hog would pay in manure its keeping. In this way we can afford 
to make pork at low prices, but in no other way can it be done without loss 
to the farmer 



48 THE TARM. 

Swine Raising—The American Agi-iculturist contains the following 
sensible advice regarding the raising of swine: Pure air helps to make 
pure blood, which, in the course of nature, builds up healthful bodies. 
Out-of-door pigs would not show so well at the fairs, and would proba- 
bly be passed over by judges and people who have been taught to ad- 
mire only the fat and helpless things which get the prizes. Such pigs 
are well adapted to fill lard kegs, whereas the standard of perfection should 
be a pig which will make the most ham with the least waste of fat, the long- 
est and deepest sides, with the most lean meat; it should have bone enough 
to allow it to stand up and help itself to food, and carry with it the evidence 
of healthy and natural development in all its parts. Pigs which run in a 
range or pasture have good appetites— the fresh air and exercise give them 
this — hence they will eat a great variety of food and much coarser than when 
confined in pens. Nothing need go to waste on the farm for lack of a market. 
They will consume all the refuse fruits, roots, pumpkins, and all kinds of 
vegetables, which will make them grow. By extending the root patch and 
planting the fodder corn thinner, so that nubbins will form on it, and by 
putting in a sweet variety, the number of pigs may be increased in propor- 
tion. A few bushels of corn at the end of the season will be ready the next 
year for any crop, and ten times the advantage accrue to the farm than if as 
the pigs are usually managed. 

Bone Meal for Strengthening Hogs. — Most farmers have noticed 
that in fattening swine, especially when they are crowded rapidly, they 
always appear weak in their hind legs, and sometimes lose the use of them 
entirely. An intelligent farmer says that he and his neighbors have made a 
practice of feeding bone meal in such cases, and find that a small quantity 
mixed with the daily feed will prevent any weakness, and strengthen the 
animals so as to admit of the most rapid forcing. As bone meal is known to 
be a preventive of cripple ail and weakness in cows, it looks reasonable that 
it should also be a benefit to hogs, which arc often confined to a diet con- 
taining but little bone-making material. 

Keeping Hogs Clean. — The floor of a hog pen should be of plank. The 
pen and hogs can then be kept clean. If the animals are permitted to root 
up the floor of the pen and burrow in the earth, they will always be in an 
uncleanly and unwholesome condition, and much food will be wasted. It is 
quite unnecessary for either the comfort or health of the hogs to let them 
exercise their natural propensity to root in the ground. The exercise is 
really a waste of food and takes so much from their growth. Hogs will fat- 
ten most quickly when they eat and sleep and remain perfectly quiet, as they 
will do in a dry, warm pen, with a clean plank floor, and bedding of clean 
straw and plenty to eat. 

How to Give a Pig Medicine. — At a recent meeting of an English 
Farmers' Club, Professor McBride spoke of the difficulty of administering 
medicine to a pig. He said: " To dose a pig, which you are sure to choke 
if you attempt to make him drink while squealing, halter him as you would 
for execution, and tie the rope end to a stake. He will pull back until the 
rope is tightly strained. When he has ceased his uproar, and begins to 
reflect, approacli him, and between the back part of his jaws insert an old 
shoe, from which you have cut the toe leather. This he will at once begin 
to suck and chew. Through it pour your medicine and he will swallow any 
quantity you please." 



LITE STOCK. 49 

Hay for Hogs. — Very few are aware of the fact that hay is very bene- 
ficial to hogs; but it is true, nevertheless. Hogs need rough food as well as 
horses, cattle or the human race. To prepare it you should have a cutting- 
box (or hay cutter), and the greener the hay the better. Cut the hay short 
and mix with bran, shorts or middlings, and feed as other food. Hogs soon 
learn to like it, and if soaked in swill or other slop food, it is highly relished 
by them. In winter use for hogs the same hay you feed to your horses, and 
you will find that, while it saves bran, shorts or other food, it puts on flesh 
as rapidly as anything that can be given them. 

Paralysis in Pig*. — Pigs are frequently subject to a partial paralysis of 
the nerves of the lumbar region, by which motion of the hind quarters is 
rendered difficult or impossible. It sometimes results from inflammation of 
the covering membrane of the spinal cord, caused by exposure to cold. The 
remedy is to rub turpentine or mustard paste upon the loins, and to give a 
teaspoonful of saltpetre in the food once a day. Dry pens and protection 
from rains in the hot season are the best preventives. 

Poisonous Swill. — A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, having 
complained of a disease among his hogs, is told by another correspondent 
that the symptoms are similar to those of hogs of his own, which he is satis- 
fied died from eating swill that had become poisoned by standing too long. 
He says: " Chemists say that when swill stands a certain length of time 
after it has soured, it becomes poisonous. I don't know that this is so, but I 
do know that I shall not feed any more old swill." 

Roots for Hogs. — Parsnips, carrots, Swedish turnips, and especially 
mangel-wurtzels, will all fatten pigs. The roots ought not to be given in a 
raw state, but always cooked and mixed with beans, peas, Indian corn, oats, 
or barley, all of which must be ground into meal. When pigs are fed on 
such cooked food as we have stated, the pork acquires a peculiarly rich 
flavor, and is much esteemed, especially for family use. 

Economy in Hog Raising. — One man who let his hogs run on grass 
and artichokes all summer, was sure that his hogs paid him from fifty to 
sixty cents per bushel for the com they consumed (not counting anything 
for the grass). Another man, who kept his hogs in a pen all summer with- 
out anything but corn and water, did not realize more than ten or fifteen 
cents per bushel for the corn consumed. 

Water for Hogs. — Hogs require free access to water in the summer 
time. If they can have a place to bathe or wallow in, it is beneficial to them, 
as it cools and cleanses the skin. Mud is not filth — it is a good disinfectant 
and healthful. Sometimes mud baths have been found useful as medicinal 
treatment for sick people. 

Scurvy Pigs. — It is said by a farmer who has tried the experiment so 
often as to be sure of his ground, that buttermilk poured over the back of a 
scurvy pig will entirely and speedily remove the scurf. The remedy is 
simple. 

Squash for Fattening Hogs — A New York farmer declares that an 
acre of Hubbard squash will fatten ten more hogs than the corn that can be 
raised on the same ground. He has gathered from six to eight tons from an 
acre. 



50 



THE FARM. 



Hurdling Sheep. — The accompanying illustration shows how an Eng- 
lishman fed his sheep on an irrigated pasture, by the use of hurdles of 

(I 




a peculiar description. The hurdles are twelve feet long and are made with 
a stout pole bored with two series of holes twelves inches apart; stakes six 
feet long are put into these holes so that they project from them three feet 



LIYL STOCK. 51 

on each side of the pole. One series of holes is bored in a direction at right 
angles to that of the other, and when the stakes are all properly placed they 
form a hurdle, the end of which looks like the letter X. The engraving 
shows how these hurdles are made and the method of using them. A row 
of these hurdles is placed across the field. The field in which they are used 
consists of six acres. A strip of ten feet wide is thus set off, upon which four 
hundred sheep feed. They eat up all the grass upon this strip and that 
which they can reach by putting their heads through the hurdles. The 
hurdles are then turned over, exposing another strip of rather more than 
four feet wide at each turn. When this is fed off, the hurdles are again 
turned over. The sharp points presented by the hurdles prevents any tres- 
passing upon the other side of them, and by using two rows of hurdles the 
sheep are kept in the narrow strip between them. Their droppings are very 
evenly spread over the field, and it is richly fertilized by them. At night 
the sheep are taken off and the grass is watered. The growth is one inch 
per day under this 'treatment, and when the field has been fed over, the 
sheep are brought back again to the starting point and commence once 
more eating their way along. * 

Raising Feed for Sheep. — The corn raised especially for sheep should 
be planted in drills, three and one-half feet apart, and about six inches in 
the drill. It will ear sufficiently, and should be shocked when the ear is 
just passing out of the milk, in large, well-built shocks. And the most 
profitable use that can be made of this for winter feeding is, to run it 
through a cutter, directly from the shock, reducing to fine chaff, stalko, 
ears, and all. If cut one-fourth of an inch long, the sheep will eat it all 
clean; this we know from practical experience. With a large cutter, a ton 
can be cut in twenty to thirty minutes. This cut corn, fed in properly con- 
structed troughs, will furnish both grain and coarse fodder. The only im- 
provement you can make on this ration, without cooking, is to feed with it 
some more nitrogenous food, such as bran, linseed meal, or cotton seed 
meal. Wocl is a nitrogenous product, and corn is too fattening a ration 
when fed alone. 

To Tell tlie Age of Slieep. — The books on sheep have seriously misled 
nock-masters on thi3 subject. Almost any sheep owner will tell you that 
after a year the sheep gets a pair of broad teeth yearly; and if you show 
that his own three-year-olds have four pairs of broad teeth, he can only 
claim that they are exceptions, and protest that they do not exceed three 
years of age. Now these cases are no exception, for all well-bred sheep 
have a lull mouth of front teeth at three years old. Some old, unimproved 
flocks may still be found in which the mouth is not full until nearly four 
years old, but fortunately these are now the exceptions, and should not be 
made the standard, as they so constantly are. In Cotswolds, Leicesters, 
Lincolns, South-Downs, Oxford-Downs, Hampshire-Downs, and even in the 
advanced Merinos, and in the grades of all of these dentition is completed 
from half a year to a year earlier. The milk or lamb teeth are easily dis- 
tinguished from the permanent or broad teeth by their smaller size and by 
the thickness of the jaw bone around their fangs where the permanent teeth 
are still inclosed. As the lamb approaches a year old, the broad exposed 
part of the tooth becomes worn away, and narrow fangs projecting above the 
gums stand apart from each other, leaving wide intervals. This is even 
more marked after the first pair of permanent teeth have come up, overlap- 



52 



THE FARM. 



ping each other at their edges, and from this time onward the number of 
small milk teeth and of broad permanent teeth can usually be made on t 
with ease. Another distinguishing feature is the yellow or dark coloration 
of the fangs of the milk teeth, while the exposed portions of the permanent 
teeth are white, clear, and pearly. The successive pairs of permanent teeth 
make their appearance through the gums in advanced breeds at about the 
following dates: The first pair at one year; the second pair at one year and 
a half; the third pair at two years and three months; the fourth and last 
pair at three years. It will be observed that between the appearance of the 
first two pairs there is an interval of six months, while after this each pair 
come up nine months after its predecessors. For backward grades, and 
the unimproved breeds, the eruption is about six months later for each 
pair of teeth, but even with them the mouth is full at three years and six 
months. 

Sheep Tick ; — How to Get Rid ofThem. — Sheep ticks are much more 
numerous and more annoying than many suppose. Men of experience with 
Jarge flocks generally know and apply the necessary remedies, but there are 

hundreds of farmers whose 
time and attention arc 

• principally directed to 

I WW I %h «JlL ifr grain growing, etc., and 

1 1 ^nAj Hj^lKKk If wno ^ ee P ^ut a ^ ew 8 h ee Pi 

W\ Iff Sli''-^ '^^^Sj whose flocks are sorely 

if Ju-I ^^^^i^^^f troubled by this parasite, 

ll ilCV_~^X ^JlalilisB^ an( ^ ^ lQ y never discover 
I \yft~\l9 l^^^l» ihe cans ® of the evil * Tlle 
V 5 \ _x Jifflr W^BI accompanying engraving of 

the insect in its different 
stages, is from the Cyclo- 
paedia of Agriculture. 

The sheep tick or louse 
lives amongst the wool, and 
is exceedingly annoying to lambs. Their oval, shining bodies, like the pips 
of small apples, and similar in color, may be found attached by the pointed 
end to the wool. (See engraving Fig. 1; Fig. 2, the same magnified.) These 
are not the eggs, but the pupae, which are laid by the female, and are at first 
soft and white. From these issue the ticks (Fig. 3; Fig. 4, the same magni- 
fied), which are homy, bristly, and dull ochre; the head is orbicular, with 
two dark eyes (Fig. 5), and a rostrum in front, enclosing three fine curved 
tubes (Fig. 6), for piercing the skin and sucking the blood. The body is 
large, leathery; purse-shaped and whitish when alive, and notched at the 
apex. The six legs are ntout, very bristly, and the feet are furnished with 
strong double claws. The English remedies are a wash of arsenic, soft 
soap and potash, decoction of tobacco, train oil with spirits of turpentine, 
and mercurial ointment. 

n icks, when very numerous, greatly annoy and enfeeble sheep, and 
snould be kept out of the flock if possible. After shearing, the heat and 
cold, the rubbing and biting of the sheep, soon drive off the tick and it takes 
refuge in the long wool of the lamb. Wait a fortnight after shearing to allow 
all to make this transfer of residence; then boil refuse tobacco leaves until 
the decoction is strong enough to kill ticks beyond a peradventure. This 
may be readily tested by experiment. Five or six pounds of cheap plug to- 




FIG. 1. — SHEEP TICKS, MAGNIFIED. 



LIVE STOCK, 



53 



bacco may be made to answer for one hundred lambs. The decoction is 
poured into a deep, narrow dipping tank kept for this purpose, and which 
has an inclined shelf on one side covered with a wooden grate, as shown in 
our illustration below- (Fig. 2). One man holds the lamb by the hind legs, 
another clasps the fore legs in one hand, and shuts the other about the 
nostrils to prevent the liquid entering them, and then the lamb is entirely 
immersed. It is immediately lifted out, laid on one side on the grate, and 
the water squeezed out of its wool. It is then turned over and squeezed on 
the other side. The grate conducts the fluid back into the box. If the lambs 
are annually dipped, ticks will never trouble a flock. 

Early Lambs. — In many localities an early lamb will sell for more 
money than will the ewe and her fleece; therefore, where there is a market 
for early lambs the breeding of these is a very profitable business, if the per- 
son who attempts it is pro- 
vided with ample shelter 
and understands the man- 
agement of both ewes and 
lambs. 

Lambs for early market 
are bred so as to be dropped 
in February and March. 
February is a hard month to 
bring them through, and 
without judicious treatment 
and warm shelter many 
lambs will be lost. The 
chief aim is to get the lambs 
ready for market as soon as 
possible, as it is the earliest 
arrivals that gain the high- 
est prices. It is necessary 
to keep the dams in good 
condition with sufficient 
food to make plenty of 
nourishing milk. Experi- 
ence and judgment are required in feeding the lambs; they must have food 
enough to promote rapid, healthy growth, and yet of a character that will 
not produce scouring. While the lambs are still with the ewes, it is well to 
supply them additional food. They can soon be taught to drink milk which 
is fresh and warm from the cow. Later on, oats, rye and wheat bran finely 
ground together make an excellent feed. As a gentle laxative a few ounces 
of linseed oil-cake will be found beneficial and at the same time nourishing. 

As the lambs .approach the period for weaning extra food should be in- 
creased; indeed, the weaning must be very gradually accomplished. The 
sudden removal of the lambs from their dams is injurious to both. A plan 
generally followed to avoid the evil effects of a sudden change, is that of 
removing the lambs to a good pasture of short, tender grass, and at night 
returning them to the fold with the ewes. The ewes must not be neglected. 
Their feed should be gradually diminished so as to diminish the yield of milk. 

How to Make Sheep Pay—Any farmer in the Eastern or Middle 
States having a farm of one hundred acres in good fence can keep a flock of 




FIO. 2. — TANK FOR DIPPING SHEEP. 



54 



THE FA TIM. 



fifty sheep and receive larger profits than from any other investment of the 
cine amount, providing they will care for them in the following manner, 
viz.: Have your sheep in good condition when you take them from pasture 
to winter. Have a sheltered pen, with plenty of room* to protect them from 
the cold and storms; have an out-yard where they can be allowed to go in 
on nice sunshiny days, in which throw cornstalks, oat or wheat straw, if you 
have plenty of it, for what the sheep do not eat will make manure, so there 
will be nothing lost. Also keep the sheltered pen dry, by throwing in straw, 
as fast as it is cut up in manure. Feed them on clover hay. If you do not 
grow any buy it, for one ton of clover hay is equal to two tons of any other 
for sheep, in my experience. Try and have your lambs dropped in January 
or February. Build a small pen alongside of your sheep pen, cut a small 
hole, so the lambs can get in, but not large enough to admit the sheep. Put 
troughs in the lambs' pen, and feed them on ground feed. They will soon 
find the hole and learn to eat, and if you have never tried it before, you will 
be surprised how much faster they will grow, and you will also find that the 
butcher will buy your lambs earlier, and pay a larger price for them than he 
will for your neighbor's, who does not observe the above advice. 

Feed Rack for Sheep. — Feed racks for stocks are indispensable 

articles of furniture in the 
sheds and yards of the farm. 
We give an engraving of one of 
these, designed especially for 
sheep. Its dimensions are 
thirty inches high, twenty- 
eight wide, bottom formed by 
nailing together four boards, 
eight or nine inches wide, in 
the shape of two troughs, or 
the letter W, resting on the 
cross pieoe B. The novel feature, perhaps, is the cant boards A A, which are 
hinged and then fastened by movable braces. These boards serve as par- 
ticular shelter to sheep, both from storm and chaff from fodder; and by 
moving the braces they assume a vertical position, and thus keep out the 
sheep while one is filling in the grain. 

Why Sheep are Profitable. — Sheep are profitable for several reasons, 
among them being the small expense of maintaining a flock. By that we 
do not mean the plan pursued by many of turning them into the woods and 
fields to be called up occasionally to be " salted," but they cost but little 
when cared for, because they are not choice in the matter of feeding. They 
greedily devour much that would be unserviceable, and for that reason are 
a necessary adjunct on a farm as a measure of economy. Where they become 
serviceable mostly is on those pastures that are deficient in long grass, and 
which are not used for making hay. It is on this short grass, even if scatter- 
ing, that the sheep pick up good feeding and thrive well. In fact, long 
grass is not acceptable to sheep, as they graze close to the ground. A flock 
of sheep would almost starve in a field of tall clover, and will quickly leave 
such for the privilege of feeding on the short herbage that grows in the fence 
corners, in the abandoned meadows, and among the wheat stubble. The 
crab grass, which becomes a weed on light soils, is highly relished by sheep 
when just beginning to spread out, and even the purslane is kept down by 




FEED RACK FOR SHEEP. 



LITE STOCK. 55 

them. Fields from which the corn has been harvested afford them much 
valuable pasturage, and they are always able to derive something for food 
on places that would support no other animal. In saying this it is not in- 
ferred that they require no care at the barn. They surely do, but require 
less than may be supposed. 

They are also great renovators of the soil, scattering manure evenly and 
pressing it iu, thus improving the ground on which they feed. They multiply 
rapidly, a small flock soon becoming a large one, and they produce profit in 
three directions — wool, mutton and lambs. 

Tar the Noses of Sheep. — The montli3 of July and August are the ones 
when sheep in many localities are subject to a most aggravating annoyance 
from a fly (oestrus bovis), which seems bound to deposit its larvae in the 
nostrils. It infects wooded districts and shady places where the sheep 
resort for shelter, and by its ceaseless attempts to enter the nose makes the 
poor creature almost frantic. If but one fly is in a flock they all become 
agitated and alarmed. They will assemble in groups, holding their heads 
close together and their noses to the ground. As they hear the buzzing of 
the little pest going from one to another, they will crowd their muzzles into 
the loose dirt, made by their stamping, to protect themselves, and as the 
pest succeeds in entering the nose of a victim, it will start on a run, followed 
by the whole flock, to find a retreat from its enemy, throwing its head from 
side to side, as if in the greatest agony, while the oestrus, having gained his 
lodging place, assiduously deposits its larvae in the inner margin of the nose. 
Here, aided by warmth and moisture, the eggs quickly hatch into a small 
maggot, which carrying out its instincts, begins to crawl up into the nose 
through a crooked opening in the bone. The annoyance is fearful and mad- 
dening, as it works its way up into the head and cavities. 

The best known remedy is tar, in which is mixed a small amount of crude 
carbolic acid. If the scent of the acid does not keep the fly away he gets 
entangled in the tar, which is kept soft by the heat of the animal. Any kind 
of tar or turpentine is useful for this purpose, and greatly promotes the com- 
fort of the sheep, and prevents the ravages of the bot in the head. 

Increasing tlie Growth, of Wool. — The use of chloride of potassium is 
recommended in Germany as a means of increasing the growth of wool on 
sheep. Some German chemists have made experiments with the article, 
proving that the growth of wool is promoted by its use. It is administered 
in the proportion of one part of chloride to nine parts of salt. It not only 
increases the production of wool, but improves the quality, and promotes 
the general health of the animal, we are told; but the proper quantities to 
administer are not stated. 

To Cure Poisoned Sheep. — Taice rue leaves, as many as you can grasp 
between thumb and forefinger. Bruise them; squeeze the juice into a half 
teacup of water, and drench the sheep with it. If the sheep are poisoned 
very bad, drench the second time, which will never fail to cure. 

Crossing Merino on Common Sheep. — A Merino ram crossed on a 
flock of common sheep will double the yield of wool through the first cross 
alone, thus paying for himself the first season. 



56 



LIVE STOCK. 




NECK YOKES— FIG 1. 





NECK YOKES -FIGS. 2 AND 3. 



Neck Yokes— How to Make Them._We present herewith several 
now and good designs for neck yokes, with complete descriptions of each, 

which will enable any one to make 
them without difficulty. Any farmer 
can get out the woodwork from the 
patterns here shown, and the iron work 
can "be made at any blacksmith shop, 
at a trifling expense. If your old neck 
yokes are worn out, now is a good time 
to supply yourself with new ones, before the spring work begins, and from 
the several styles we have here illustrated, you should have no difficulty in 
making a selection of oue to suit you. 

In our illustration, Fig. 1, is shown 
a neck yoke complete; the position of 
the various rings being as they appear 
when in actual use. Through the center 
of this yoke pass two eyed staples, riveted 
at the upper part as shown; in each of 
said eyes is a welded ring, and also 
through these is passed and welded a 
larger one, or what is denominated the 
tongue ring, from three to five and-a-half 
inches in diameter. The end, or breast- 
strap rings, wear against the lower side 
of the ferrules encompassing the outer 
end of the yoke, as a prevention against 
splitting or checking, by use or the elements. The ferrules are retained in 
place by staples, holding tne rings substan- 
tially, as shown. This is a very good and 
neat style; it is strong and durable. 

Fig 2 represents a threaded iron staple 
with ring attached; the portion with thread 
cut on is eight inches in length. It is screwed 
into the ferruled end of the yoke shown in Fig. 
3. The advantages gained are, when one side 
of the staple becomes worn, by the action of 
the ring while in use, it may be revolved oue- 
half, and the opposite side worn. 

Fig. 4 illustrates another method of attaching the breast-ring. A atrip 
of iron is welded upon one 
side of the ferrule as shown. 
Should it by use become worn, 
it can, by readjusting the fer- 
rule, be used as in Fig. 1. 

Fig. 5. exhibits another plan 
of attaching the tongue ring. 
But one staple passes through 
the yoke, with proper wear 
plates for the same, attached 
by nailing or with screws 
as is shown. It is self- 
evident that this staple should be larger than that in Fig. 1; also should be 
loose enough to revolve, as the position it will often occupy will necessitate. 




NECK YOKES FIG. 4. 




NECK YOKES— FIG. 5. 



LIVE STOCK. 



57 




NECK YOKES — FIG. 6. 



In Fig. 6 is shown the simplest possible plan or form of attaching the 
center or tongue ring. It is simply an iron clasp, of a size corresponding 
with the dimensions of the center of the yoke over which it passes, and is 
secured by screws. With this ar- 
rangement, the wood part of the 
neck yoke may be small and not 
open to the liability of breaking, as 
are those with a staple or staples 
passing through the most vital part— 
the center. The manner of attach- 
ing the breast-strap ring, designed 
especially to accompany the part 
shown in Fig. 6, is shown in Fig. 7. 
It is so clearly shown in our illustra- 
tion as to render a description un- 
necessary. 

In Fig. 8 is shown a neck yoke designed especially for use upon light or 
pleasure vehicles. Around the center is made a groove two inches wide 
and one-eight of an inch in depth, around which is placed a strip of leather, 
the ends connected together by sewing or riveting, and provided with a 
hole for the reception of the end of the tongue, or iron on the end of the 
same. Staples are inserted at the side, near each end, between which and 

ihe yoke passes a strap, which, when 
buckled, is of a length sufficient to 
allow of the passage of the breast- 
*trap; or the strap first mentioned is 
buckled around the lower part of the 
horse-collar, dispensing entirely with 
the breast strap. The list shown and 
described contains all the various forme 
and styles deemed worthy of notice, 
neck yokes— fig. 7. especially for farmers. 

Working Vicious Horses. — The management of balky and kicking 
horses, writes a correspondent of the Indiana Farmer , is very poorly under- 
stood by many of our horse owners. I will give a few plans for managing 
this noble animal without so much brute force. The way to manage a kick- 
ing horse is to take a short piece of rope long enough to go around the 
upper jaw, which must be tied so as not to slip. The knot must be placed 
in the center of the mouth; 
then take a rope twenty feet 
long, half-inch in diameter, 
double it, and pass one end 
through the loop around the 
upper jaw; pass both ends up 

between the ears through a x ECK yokes— fig. 8. 

ring that is tied to the top of 

the bridle; then pass each end through the terrets of the back baud on the 
harness; then through a ring that must be tied to the crupper strap, divide 
the rope and tie each end to the shafts. By this arrangement a horse can- 
not kick unless he jerks his head up at every attempt he makes to kick, 
which will punish himself so severely he will soon give up the bad habit. 

This rig will work on a horse that kicks to a road wagon. By bolting a 





58 LIVE STOCK. 

stout piece on the double tree, so it will extend out as far as the end of the 
singletree, and bolt one end of a two-inch square piece to it, and tie the 
uther end to the hame; then tie one end of the rope to the two-inch piece 
and the other end to the tongue, and let them kick if they can. 

Balky drivers are apt to make balky horses. It is apt to be the case 
when a horse shows signs of balking, the driver commences to whip and 
gets the horse excited so he won't ntretch a trace. 

Now, the best plan when the driver sees that a horse is going to balk is 
just to pull on the lines and stop them, and let them stand a few minutes. 
And if the other horse is a true puller, speak to him and let him start the 
load, and by loading light and working gently with the balky horse you can 
soon have a good puller of him. Of course there are some horses that have 
been spoiled by overloading and bad drivers, and nothing but force will 
make them pull. 

For halter pulling put a bridle on the horse, and buckle a surcingle 
around his body; then take a half-inch rope twenty feet long, double it, 
and pass the end under the surcingle on either side of the horse and 
through th© rings of the bridle, and fasten to a post; the center must be put 
under the tail, the same as a crupper. So when he pulls the hurt will come 
behind, and, as a natural consequence, the horse will not make any at- 
tempts to pull 
back. 

Medicated 
Bridle Bit 

In our engrav- 
ing is shown a 
bridle bit which 
is said to have 

MEMCATED BRIDLE BIT. b f D ««» me ^ 8 

of aiding m the 
cure of various diseases to which the throats and mouths of horses are lia- 
ble. The bit is made hollow, with minute perforations along the side. 
Into the hollow bit is poured, while melted, a medicament prepared with 
some bland substance, like lard, oil of theobroma, or other substance 
which melts at a low temperature, simply as a vehicle, or which may be 
itself of service as an emolient. The warmth of the horse's mouth when 
the bit is applied melts the medicament, which flows to and over the 
diseased parts, which are thus reached for treatment, even when the ani- 
mal is at work. 

Good Grooming.— The advantages derived from thorough grooming 
are not very generally understood. A good many people who exact plenty 
of hard \tork from their horses will, nevertheless, b< grudge them careful 
grooming, apparently regarding that as a luxury merely, which can be 
spared just as well as extra fine clothes. This is a great mistake. Groom- 
ing does not necessarily mean plaiting the mane and shining up the hoofs; 
it means keeping the animal's hair and coat cleaued and well brushed. 
Good grooming will not only add to the animal's comfort, but to its health- 
fulness. It is as essential in this respect as cleanliness and care are to 
children. Moreover, it tends to render the horse docile and to inspire in 
him affection for his master. Gentle handling is a great factor in securing 
a home's good will, and nothing will enable a man to get the best work 




LIVE STOCK. 



59 



f-.om his horse more than the animal's good will. Who that has had any- 
ihing to do with horses needs to be reminded of how much greater efforts 
vill be put forth by a good horse in response to his beloved master's friend- 
v voice, than in response to an angry tone or to the crack of the whip ? 

Perhaps we have here one of the causes of the frequent complaint that it 
3 hard to find a man who can take care of horses. The ability to care for 
lorses as they should be cared for is much more rare than the ability to be 
i good bricklayer or carpenter, or to do any other purely mechanical work. 
To succeed with horses a man must be ever watchful of them; he must get 
o know ihem and love them. Their health and comfort must be his con- 
stant care, and grooming must be a labor of love, and not a tiresome duty. 
Especially do horses need care after a spell of hard work, and every hu- 
mane master will at such a time wipe them dry of perspiration, taking ofl 
;he harness, if possible to do so, even if he has to put it on again immedi- 
ately. Let the legs, from the knees and hocks 
down, be well hand-rubbed, and, if fevered 
from over-driving, they should be bandaged 
in wet cloths, to take away the heat. Atten- 
tion to these little matters will not only stimu- 
late the horse's affection and gratitude, but 
will preserve him in good health and prolong 
his years of usefulness. 

A Horse Yoke. — Our illustration repre- 
sents a yoke for unruly horses, which will be 
found very useful to those that have such 
stv>ck. This is a harmless and simply con- 
structed yoke, and will prevent any horse 
from scaling fences. A is a bow about three 
feet and a half long. This should be of tough 
hickory or oak, so that it will bend readily to 
its neck. B is two pins about a foot long, to 
go through two holes in each end oi the bow. 
They should be inch pins. C is a poke four 
feet long, with the top end square. A hole 
must be bored four inches from the top, so 
that the under pin may pass through it, and 

the four inch part may rest on the upper pin. The poke should be at an angle 
of thirty degrees. B is a hook, mortised through the lower end, which 
will be found beneficial. The yoke should fit the neck neatly, and the ends 
of the bow should be drawn closely up to the square sides of the poke. 
This simple device will be found very useful to those who have horses that 
are addicted to the bad habit of jumping fences. 

The Shape of a Saddle Horse— Most people stand too near a horse to 
form the best judgment as to his general shape. If a man examines a horse 
in the stable only he may satisfy himself that the horse has a good neck 
and shoulders, and also good hind-quarters, and yet the fore-quarters may 
be out of all proportion to the hiDd-quarters, so that the horse will look as 
if he was made of two halves of two different sized animals joined together. 
Better look at a horse first from a distance of forty or fifty yards, and then 
make a closer inspection for local details. 

It is a mistake to think that a horse will alter in shape as he alters in 




A HORSE YOKE. 






60 



LI VE STOCK. 



condition. His general construction will remain the same. If a lean horse 
has a ewe neck do not think you can fatten his neck into good shape any 
more than you could by feeding convert a man with a turnup nose into one 
with a hooked nose. 

A side view will show the proportion between the horse's height and 
length, the shape of head and neck, and the size of his barrel. His hocks 
can be marked to see if he has curbs, and you can tell whether his fore-legs 
are straight or crooked. 

As to the barrel, a good depth in the girth is a good thing, but if a horse 
is wide in the chest, he is not so deep in his girth, and a wide-chested horse 
is stronger than a narrow one, although he may not look so deep. His back 
ribs should, by all means, be large. That is, his body should look as big 
near the hind legs as near the fore legs. A horse that looks light in the 
stomach when he is fat, will not be as strong or last as well as one that 
looks thick in the middle at all times. 

Looking at the horse when in front of him you can note the width of 
chest and shoulders. A moderately narrow chest is generally preferred to 
a wide one. But two great annoyances are (1) a sore back from the saddle 

pinching the withers, and (2) fetlocks 
cut by the opposite foot. A wide-chested 
horse, with fore legs well apart, is ex- 
empt from both iiiese evils. 

From the same point of view it can be 
determined whether a horse's feet are 
straight or not. Toes turned in or out 
are faults, but widely different ones. A 
horse that turns his toes out may be good 
tempered and have good shoulders, and 
may be ridden with pleasure. A horse 
with his toes turned in is often morose 
and always clumsy. 

Looking from behind a horse, his 
hocks should appear straight. It is bet- 
ter, however, that they should be too near together than too far apart. A 
fourth view is that which one has when looking down upon the wheelers of 
a coach from the box, and it is important. The horse's body, seen from 
this point, should be the same shape as a hen's egg, with the broad end 
towards the tail. That is, the back ribs will be the broadest part of him. 

To Break Horses from Pulling at tlie Halter. -Provide a stout, new 
rope— one that is not easily broken; knot it around the animal's neck with 
a knot that will not slip; then give the rope a " hitch " around the under 
jaw just behind the lower tusks as shown in the illustration. Give about 
eight feet play of rope from his mouth to the tree. Give the rope two turns 
around the tree; take a keen whip and whip him in the face until he pulls 
on the rope, you letting it slip a little in your hand. When he gets quiet, 
draw him up a second time, and a little closer. Whip him again in the 
face. Repeat this until he is satisfied that he cannot get off. After four or 
five trials he will have learned the lesson, and the habit of pulling at the 
halter will be broken. 

Remedy for Cribbing Horses— The habit of cribbing is considered by 
the best modern authorities a symptom of indigestion or a diseased condi- 




PULLING AT THE HALTER. 






LIVE STOCK. 01 

tion of the stomach. Horses addicted to this vice are generally thin in 
flesh, but this condition is probably the result of the disordered state of the 
digestive organs rather than to the act of grasping and pressing upon the 
manger or some other object with tbe teeth. A horse in which this habit 
has long existed can readily be recognized by the worn and rounded ap- 
pearance of the edges of his front teeth, also by the enlarged appearance of 
the muscles which depress the jaw. The habit can be prevented in several 
ways, but is liable to return again when the preventing conditions are 
removed. By taking away the manger and feeding from the ground the 
animal will have nothing to rest his teeth upon, hence, as a rule, can not 
gratify his propensity in this direction, except in some very obstinate cases, 
when they will seize one of their knees and use that for cribbing purposes, 
By nailing a strip of sheepskin about eight inches in width the entire 
length of the crib, selecting a skin covered with long wool, and sprinkling 
it freely with cayenne pepper, renewing it occasionally, the worst cribber 
can be persuaded to desist from his habit. 

Too Much Curry-Comb._An excellent colored coachman, whose 
horses always looked clean and smooth, once assured us that he wanted 
nothing but a wisp of straw for cleaning horses. A writer in the Journal of 
Agriculture takes about the same view in the following: 

It is within the memory of most stockmen, that the curry-comb was con- 
sidered an indispensable article of horse furniture, and even yet in most 
stables it is used to a greater or less extent. But it is time to consider 
whether there are not other means of cleaning stock less barbarous and 
more effective. 

Suppose you try a curry-comb every morning on your own head a few 
minutes (provided you are not bald-headed already), and see how you like 
it. The hair can be kept short, perhaps, and smooth, but it is at the ex- 
pense of a healthy skin on the animal. There are brushes made purposely 
for the business that are infinitely preferable to the curry-comb. The brush 
will remove all the dirt if properly applied, and there is no danger of apply- 
ing it too vigorously. The best thing to clean a horse with is a handful of 
" excelsior," or the moss that is used for mattresses, or if you have not that 
a good brush, or a wisp of hay or straw. A corncob applied to the limbs of 
the horse and a polish off with a piece of cloth, will do all the cleansing 
necessary, especially if the limbs are sponged off frequently and carefully 
in good weather, and rubbed dry. 

None of these articles cost as much as a curry-comb (except the brush, 
which all good horsemen will keep on hand), and either of them are better 
than the comb. The owner of a good horse ought to see to it that the curry 
comb is abolished from his stable, or used sparingly, and a little more work 
put in, with a less barbarous instrument. When a horse cringes and jumps 
at the application of the curry-comb, it is not because he don't like to b^ 
cleaned, but he objects most decidedly to the method. 

Try the noble animal once with a little less heroic treatment, and our 
word for it, you will banish the curry-comb from your stable. 

Shoeing the Horse. — The horse, the shoe and the smith. The latter, 
says the Turf, Field and Farm, is responsible for nearly all the trouble our 
horses have. They cut and slash away on the feet until all the life is gone. 
They nail the shoe on with seven or eight nails when four or five would 
answer every purpose and be so much better for the foot. They shoe the 






G2 LIVE STOCK. 



poor horse now as they did one hundred years ago. They employ boys, in 
many cases, to nail and trim the foot, who have no mere idea of what they 
are doing than a monkey has of weather predictions. The owners of horses 
stand around and say nothing, but allow them full sway. Oh, owners of 
horses, why will you allow the poor horse to be butchered? Why don't 
you stop and reason. Ask yourself, does the foot require so much cutting? 
I tell you right here no; they will not stand it. Shoe the foot in the most 
simple way. The shoe, the rasp, and four or five nails for a gentleman's 
road horse is all that is required. What is still better is a short shoe, 
called a tip. If you cannot make up your mind to use the tip, use a plain, 
flat shoe, and have it put on the way I have stated. Don't go to the shop 
with your horde and tell the smith to shoe him, but tell him how you want 
him shod, the most simple way is the better. Say, " Mike, Pat or Jerry, I 
want my horse shod; just rasp his foot off, so he will have a level bearing. 
Do not touch a knife to it, at all. Nail on a short, flat shoe, with four or 
five nails and let it alone. I want the outside of the foot to look as dirty as 
possible; no sandpaper or rasp goes on the outside of the same." In a little 
time you will have a foot on your horse that is sound and strong, free from 
corns, or any other trouble. Now, if every owner of a horse will do this 
much, we will not see the poor crippled horses that we do now, in one 
year's time. Every man who owns a horse, will own one that can walk, 
trot, or run, and do it with ease and pleasure. After you do this much, 
you will shorten the shoe a little; you will find that improves your horse; 
after a while you will shorten it still more; before you know it, you will be 
driving your horse with tips; then both you and the horse will be pleased. 

Horse Maxims. -Never allow any one to tickle your horse in the stable. 
The animal only feels the torment, and does not understand the joke. 
Vicious habits are easily brought on. 

Let the horse's litter be dry and clean underneath as well as on top. 
Standing on hot, fermented manure makes the hoofs soft and brings on 
lameness. 

Change the litter partially in some parts and entirely in others every 
morning; brush out and clean the stall thoroughly. 

To produce a good coat on your horse, use plenty of rubbing and brush- 
ing. Plenty of " elbow grease ' opens the pores, softens the skin, and 
promotes the general health. 

Use the curry-comb lightly. When used roughly it is a source of great 
pain. 

Let the heels be well brushed out every night. Dirt, if allowed to cake 
in, causes grease and sore heels. 

Whenever a horse is washed, never leave him till he is rubbed quite 
dry. He will probably get a chill if neglected. 

When a horse comes off a journey, the first thing is to walk him about till 
he is cool, if he is brought in hot. This prevents him from taking cold. 

Let his legs be well rubbed by the hand. Nothing so soon removes 
strain. It also detects thorns or splinters, soothes the animal, and enables 
him to feel comfortable. 

Let the horse have some exercise every day, otherwise he is liable to 
fever or bad feet. 

Let your horse stand loose, if possible, without being tied up to the 
manger. Pain and weariness from a continued position induce bad habits, 
and OftUSed swollen feet. 



LIVE STOCK. 03 

Look at the animal's legs and feet. Disease or wounds in these parts, if 
at all neglected, soon become dangerous. 

To Make the Mane and Tail Grow.— Mr. Findley, veterinary editor 
of the New York Sportsman, gives the following treatment to make a horse's 
mane and tail grow, and to prevent their falling out: 

" Rubbing the mane and tail usually results from an unhealthy condition 
of the skin, which, in most cases, is produced by neglect of grooming, or by 
bad food, or by any sudden change of diet from bad to good. Occasionally, 
however, it appears in stables where grooming and food are unquestionably 
good. Damaged oats or hay are very ready causes for this annoying affec- 
tion. In every case, therefore, the food should be carefully examined. 
Young horses, on coming into stables, sometimes suffer from irritation of 
the skin, probably from change of diet. Horses recovering from fever fre- 
quently lose a large portion of the hair from the mane and tail. In the 
latter case it seems to arise from an impoverished state of the blood. In 
regard to treatment, if any positive cause, such as damaged food, or 
neglected grooming can be ascertained to have existed, measures, of course, 
must be taken to rectify it. Without such amendment local treatment will 
not be of much avail. The local treatment consists in dressing the skin 
with equal parts of mercurial ointment and soft soap, made into a lather 
with hot water, and applied by means of a stiff hard brush. The new hair 
will grow rapidly after this application. Besides the above local remedies, 
it will be necessary to act on the system generally by a change of diet; 
green food, which by means of its laxative qualities lessens the irritability 
of the skin, should be given. A bran mash with five grains of arsenic 
daily, in addition to the usual food, will exert a beneficial influence on the 
skin." 

Watering Horses. — The present system of watering is surely capable 
of improvement. The prevailing idea seems to be that a horse is like a 
bean, only fit to be used when every particle of moisture has been extracted 
from it. Comparatively few grooms give horses as much water as they will 
drink, simply, as it would appear, because they dread its effects, and not 
because they are opposed to ad libitum treatment itself, for, though nig- 
gardly with the water, they often keep hay in the rack all day. If there be 
no danger of a horse overeating, why should overdrinking be apprehended? 
Some years ago there was a movement in favor of the plan of letting horses 
have water before them at all times, except, of course, when they come in 
hot. Some persons who gave the experiment a fair trial affirmed that 
horses so treated drank less in course of the day than those watered from 
a bucket at stated intervals, and our own experiment coincides with theirs. 
Nor is there anything irrational in this, while the advantages of the system 
seem self-evident. Our horses are fed on dry and consequently thirsty 
food. If this thirst is not quenched there is a tendency to fever, which is 
also furthered by the strong work performed by a hunter, whereupon the 
groom comes to the rescue with his " bit of physic." If nature were al- 
lowed to find her own balance, this feverishness would probably never 
appear, as a horse never drinks for drinking sake, as some of his masters 
and attendants do at times. Moreover, a horse with water before him 
never drinks much at one time, and is never unfit for work any moment: 
whereas the |horse watered only at feeding times can never be used until 
some time after the bucket has gone round. 



64 LI VE STOCK. 

Cure for Pawing Horses — A correspondent of the New York Tribune 
writes that paper that the habit of pawing can be overcome in most cases 
by lifting the foot, and holding it up for a while every time the animal be- 
gins to paw. To give the horse the first lesson, he says: Put on an old har- 
ness, buckle a strap around each of the forward fetlocks, attach a small 
rope five or six feet long to each strap, pass the ropes through rings or 
loops on the top of the saddle, take the horse to a soft, smooth spot, so that 
he will not be liable to get hurt, girt the saddle tight so that it will not turn, 
take up one forward foot and hold it up for some ten or fifteen minutes by 
making the rope fast at the ring on the saddle. The object of this lesson is 
to teach the horse that standing on three legs is tiresome and disagreeable 
work, and also to teach him that his foot is held by a superior power, and 
that he cannot put it down without the consent of that power. For him to 
get these ideas, he needs to stand long enough to get very tired of it, and 
needs to do his best to get his foot free before he can realize that is impos- 
sible for him to free it. Having giving this lesson, put the horse in the 
place where he is in the habit of doing the most pawing, and when he lifts 
either foot, hold it up by pulling on the rope attached to it, and hold it for 
a short time only. The object of this lesson is to teach the horse that it is 
when and only when he lifts his foot to paw that the control of it is taken 
from him. When he learns this he will probably stop the practice; but for 
him to get this idea, the foot must be taken and held long enough for him 
to realize that it is held every time he attempts to paw. In this, as in all 
teaching and all disciplinary work, the teacher and govenor needs a good 
supply of patience and perseverance. 

Box Stalls in tlie Stable— Box stalls are a necessary appendage to 
large stables. Two or three stalls for the use of sick and lame horses are 
indispensable to all large establishments. The more box stalls the better 
for trainiug race horses. They are far better than open stalls for condition- 
ing the racer, and are better for wintering than close when out of training. 
They should be built from twelve to sixteen feet square, which would give 
abundant room for the largest class of inmates to lie down and get up with- 
out being cramped for room. These stalls can be converted into single 
stalls by a movable partition when necessity requires it. Each stall ought 
to have an escape pipe running to the roof to carry off the foul air, and 
apertures at the bottom to let in the fresh air. The constant ingress ol 
fresh air and the egress of foul air will cleanse and purify the stable. Con- 
dition for winning races is nothing more than good health put in execution 
by constant exercise and grooming. Preserve the health of horses by pure 
air and clean stables, and the skill of the trainer will more easily put them 
in the condition to contest for the palm of victory. Great consequence is 
attached to health and condition in the breeding stable. It is acknowledged 
to be the turning point of success in breeding establishments. 

Hints About Horses—Bad driving will often fatally injure a horse in 
a few miles, while skillful driving would make the journey in less time and 
leave the horse as Iresh as when he started. Drive slow when the animal 
is full of food and water; but after the muscles are limbered and the sys- 
tem emptied, increase the speed. Then check up and let the hoi'se cool off 
before stopping, and there would be less danger of taking cold and of stiff 
muscles, and less necessity lor rubbing down. Drive slow up hill and 
down, and make good time on level ground and on moderate descents. 



LIVE STOCK. 65 

Never keep the same gait and speed for a long time, for a change of gait is 
equivalent to a rest. Never ride a horse without first making his acquaint- 
ance and securing his good will. Go to his head, speak kindly, pat him, 
look in his eyes. Whether you are a friend or foe, he will judge by your 
voice, your breath. Horses judge a man as quickly as a man does a horse. 
Feed and water abundantly at night alter work and the animal has had 
time to rest and cool off. Feed moderately in the morning or before work. 
Parthians and Arabs prepare their horses for hard drives by fasting rather 
than feasting. More horses are injured by hard driving on a full stomach 
than by any other process. Never let a horse eat or drink much when he 
is hot from work. Study your horse, treat him according to his nature, 
make him your friend, and he will do better and safer service. 

Off with the Check Reins. — It is painful to see so many horses tor- 
tured with tight check reins. There are four ways in which these faithful 
though dumb servants show neckache alone, to say nothing of other tor- 
tures from too tight a check rein: First, by tossing up of the head; second, 
by running out the tongue; third, by Irothing at the mouth (the horse can- 
not swallow); fourth, by swinging the head from side to side. Unhook the 
check of almost any horse that has been harnessed an hour or two, notice 
how slowly and pleasurably the poor animal lowers his head — a convincing 
proof that keen suffering has been endured. Again, with the free use of 
the head in warm weather the horse keeps off many torturing flies, which 
he cannot do if reined with a light check. Give him a light check, or, bet- 
ter, none at all. Let the owner or driver try the effect of a single fly upon 
his bared arm and he will learn to be merciful to the noblest and yet most 
abused of domestic animals. 

The Horse's Back—The back of a horse is strong and well supported. 
It is the arch of a bridge, which, from his structure, can bear weight placed 
upon it, whereas an inverted arch would fall to pieces, or would withstand 
a far less pressure. It has been observed that low-backed, or, rather, hol- 
low-backed horses, working in harness, kept th^ir condition, while those 
with high backs lost flesh. Persons of not very inquiring or observant dis- 
positions would probably attribute this to the fact that the former were of 
more hardy constitution than the latter, but this would be a false conclu- 
sion. It is owing entirely to the curvature of the back, for a horse which 
can draw a weight was least able to bear a weight upon its back, while the 
horse unable to bear the strain of draft could beat the other any day in 
carrying a weight. The line of the vertebrae indicates the sort of work for 
which the horse is fitted. If it is high the weight must be on the top to 
press it together; if low, the pressure must be from below for the same 
reason. A downward curvative is, therefore, the best form of spine for a 
draft horse. 

Accumulation of Manure in Stables. — A large mass of dung, unless 
frozen or kept near the freezing point, will undergo decomposition, and 
gives off, besides steam, ammonia and other gases. These tend to soften 
and injure the hoofs of animals, and especially horses, that may be forced 
to stand continuously upon the accumulation of dung. These gases cause 
inflammation of the eyes, and injure the general health, interfere with diges- 
tion, and reduce the vigor of the animal. There should be no mass of 
manure in any stable where horses are kept. A clean floor and pure air 
are requisites for the best health of the animals. 



66 



LI V K STOCK. 



A Horse Stocking. — The horse stocking shown in our illustration is in- 
tended to contribute to the comfort of the horse, and, in one sense, to its 
support. It consists of snug-fitting elastic anklet of india-rubber molded 
to fit the horse's leg, and ribbed and reinforced to prevent sagging and 
slipping down at the top. It is also perforated to allow free exit for per- 
spiration, and is laced in front, as shown in the sketch. The object of the 
invention is to provide a support not always of the length shown, but longer 
or shorter, as may be necessary for sustaining and protecting the tendons, 
ankles, knee-joints, etc., of trotting and racing horses, and horses in general, 
so as to prevent injuries from over-bending or straining in stepping upon 
stones or rut-holes. 



Horse Management in Summer— The requisites of a good stable are 
but tew. It should be dry and well drained. 
Its floor should slope a little in the rear, and it 
should be covered with narrow strips having 
half inch spaces between them, through which 
the liquids could escape. The ceiling be high, 
nine feet at' the least, and should be of 
matched boards to exclude dust from above. 
The light should come from near the top, at 
least above the level of the horse's head, and 
should be abundant; if the window is on the 
sunny side, it should be shaded by a blind or 
shutter. There should be ample means of 
ventilation by openings at the bottom and 
the top, covered with wire guaze to exclude 
flies. The doors should be double, so that 
the upper half may be left open at night, or 
they may be made of strips with half inch 
spaces between them, protected with gauze or 
netting. The interior should be kept white- 
washed and perfectly clean and free from 
vermin. All these requisites need only atten- 
tion, and cost no more than the ordinary ill- 
adapted arrangements. The bedding should 
be fine; cut straw will be found economical, 
even counting the cost of the labor to procure 
it. Saw-dust is the best of all bedding, and 
pine saw-dust is better than hard wood on 
account of its resinous odor and its repellent effect against vermin. 

Physical cleanliness, however, is the great matter to be observed. 
There is no reason why a horse stable should be so powerfully odoriferous. 
Nothing is easier than to keep it clean and sweet. A gutter should be pro- 
vided to carry off drainage and a tank or pit filled with absorbents should 
be made to receive it. Once a day a few pails of water should be dashed 
on the floor to wash it off. Then a shovelful of plaster should be scattered 
about before fresh litter is spread. This will add at least one hundred 
dollars to the value of the manure from a pair of horses in a year, for the 
urine is worth more than the solid excrement, and would thus be saved, 
even that portion which escapes into the air or is carried into the house and 
elsewhere by those who attend the stables. The result of this care will be 
to keep it free from those odors which attract flies in vast numbers, and 




A HORSE STOCKING. 



LIVE STOCK. 67 

which have a very injurious irritative effect upon the eyes and lungs of the 
occupants. The flies which infest stables are not the common flies, as is 
generally supposed, but a savage biting fly, called from its annoying at- 
tacks, " Calcitraos," or the " causer of kicking." This is its specific name, 
being stomoxys (in full, Stomoxys calcitraos), while the house fly is Nusca 
domestic. Those who have experienced the sharp bite of this savage fly 
can appreciate to a feeble extent the sufferings of a tired horse exposed the 
whole night to its incessant, blood-thirsty attacks. It is this which causes 
the constant stamping which " murders sleep " in the homestead upon those 
nights when the air is close and heavy, and the farmer writhes upon his 
bed, ignorantly anathematizing the noise made by his team. This may be 
prevented by a few minutes' work in the evening. The horse may be 
brought into the yard and a pail full of water, a sponge, and a piece of car- 
bolic or whale-oil soap provided. First with a corn broom the legs of the 
horse should be washed down, and then the whole body rubbed off with a 
handful of straw dipped in water; the sponge is then well soaped and 
passed over the whole body, leaving some soapsuds to dry upon the skin. 
This cools the horse, removes the filth from the hide, and drives off the 
flies, all of which are conducive to its comfort and rest. The change will 
be both conspicuous and agreeable, and the team, refreshed with a good 
night's rest, will do better work the next day with far less exhaustion. 

Diseases of Animals— It is rather doubtful, says a writer in the Ameri- 
can Bural Home, whether wild animals suffer much from disease, unless it 
may be in the case of injuries inflicted by other animals in the struggle for 
subsistence, in which the weaker, if it escapes with life, is sometimes 
wounded. The numerous diseases, constantly increasing in number, to 
which domestic animals are subject, are mainly caused by changed con- 
dition incident to domestication. Some of the changes, the result of do- 
mestication, are calculated to prolong existence. The fact that most of our 
domestic animals are provided with a steady supply of food, instead of the 
somewhat irregular and precarious supply of the wild animals, is favorable 
to health and longevity, as also is the fact that tbey are protected from the 
rigors of the seasons by warm shelter. However hardy we may regard 
those animals that run wild upon the prairies or in the woods, at all seasons 
of the year, there is little doubt that many of them succumb to the inclem- 
ency of the weather, attended, as it frequently is, by an insufficiency of 
proper food. Yet, with all due allowance for this there is little doubt that 
our practice of pampering our domestic animals subjects them to many 
species of diseases, unknown to the animal in his wild state. 

Many diseases are brought upon our laboring animals by ignorance, in- 
considerateness and positive cruelty iu the excessive labors we exact from 
them, placing burdens upon them too heavy to be borne. Some men, in 
loading their teams, are only restricted by the ability of the teams to move 
loads, not considering that a team can only be pressed to the utmost extent 
of its ability at great risk of strain and injury. The cruelties inflicted by 
man upon his faithful servants, the horse, the mule and the ox, are a foul 
stigma on his manhood, from the just penalties of which he cannot escape. 
These penalties are not simply the loss of service and property by diseases 
and disabilities resulting to the animals, but, also, the hardening and im- 
bruting of his own character. We do not take into consideration, fully, the 
fact that our relations to the brute creation, and especially to the domesti- 
cated portion, may be a source of blessing in their influence upon our own 






(58 LI VE STOCK. 

characters, or may be a curse. We are under obligations to treat dumb 
animals with justice, mercy and kindness, as we are to so treat our fellow 
men, and any failure to discharge those obligations will react upon our own 
character. 

The first effort of every stock-owner should be to prevent disease in our 
animals. To enable us to do this we should first study our animals, learn 
all in our power about their anatomy and physiology, about the wonderful 
processes of animal life. In this we shall learn what bones, muscles, 
organs, nerves are most tender, most exposed to injury, and then guard, as 
much as it is in our power, those weak and exposed parts. How few 
horses, for example, do we see that are perfectly sound in limb and lung; 
some bruise or strain has brought on spavins, splints, ring-bone, thorough- 
pin, etc., and great exertion, followed by sudden cooling, has caused in- 
flamm ition of the lungs or other parts of the breathing apparatus. Now, 
while these diseases and difficulties might have been easily prevented by 
proper treatment and care, when once fastened upon the animal it is very 
difficult getting rid of them. 

Then, how many diseases are brought upon domestic animals by im- 
proper and irregular feeding ? Fed when exhausted, when heated; fed and 
driven, violently, immediately, or put immediately to hard work, diverting 
the vital energies from the important business of digesting the food. Is it 
a wonder that the digestive organs of horses, as well as men, are so often 
deranged and diseased, when we consider that they are managed by the 
same ignorance and recklessness that man's hygienic and dietetic practices 
are managed ? 

When our own management has caused disease in our domestic animals, 
and more especially, in the horse, what do we then do ? The first thing we 
used to do in most cases, especially if there was any inflammation, was to 
bleed. When the poor animal most needed all the vitality he could com- 
mand to enable l.im to throw off disease, we forthwith proceeded to deprive 
him of a portion of the fluid that contains the vital force and distributes it 
all over the system. The next process generally, was to purge, that is, to 
carry out of the system the partially digested fo >d, containing the very 
force the system needs. Quacks, totally ignorant of the nature and effects 
of chemicals, were quick to prescribe the most deadly drugs, which were to 
be forced down the throat of the reluctant animal and, if nature, asserting 
her recuperative powers, was able to triumph over both disease and drugs, 
the latter received all the credit and became an established remedy. 

We are glad to believe that a better day has dawned when the treatment 
of disease in the brute en ation as well as in the human, is conforming to 
common sense, to reason. We are beginning to learn that when disease 
afflicts the animal or human system that nature effects the cure, and that 
our principal function is to put the patient in good sanitary condition and, 
as far as possible, remove the obstructions to nature's operations. Where 
there is inflammation or fever, some cooling applications (and there are 
few better than water) are beneficial, and where germs or insects cause the 
disease, drugs may be indicated. We have little doubt that in a majority 
of the diseases to which our domestic animals are heir, rest and sensible 
hygienic treatment will prove most efficacious. 

About Si:il>les and Siabling.— Does it ever strike the majority of our 
farmer readers, aslis D. Z. Evans, Jr., in Home and Farm, that there are 
many mistakes made in regard to the arrangement of the stable they keep 



LIVE STOCK. 69 

their horse stock in, and that a little attention to this very important mat- 
ter, and at a moderate outlay of cash and Jabor, would remedy many de- 
fects? The most important stock a farmer has on his farm is the working 
stock of horses, for without them he would have to either quit farming al- 
together or else relapse into tbe primitive style used by the ancients, with 
the profits worse than nil. Yet the working stock often is sadly neglected, 
not particularly in the matter oi feed, for the major part of our farmers feed 
their horses liberally, but in regard to the stables. 

Those large, double-decker barns, erected at great expense, look all that 
they should be. The mow room is commodious enough for the crops, the 
arrangements are such as to admit of the use of that great labor saver, the 
horse hay fork, while there is plenty of room to drive in and out. The 
building itself gives the place an air of thrift and substantiality, which no- 
thing else can. We like up-stairs arrangements very much. Now let us 
take a trip below and see if there we find things in good keeping with what 
we have seen above. We see the root cellars, and they are just where they 
should be, and well arranged; but when we see the cow and horse stable 
we admit that we are not at all satisfied. 

In the first place the stables are very dark, which is a great objection, 
and is a fruitful cause of blindness. The horses, when not at work, are 
kept here, and when wanted for use are brought out into the sudden glare 
of the bright sunlight. Great pain is the present, and blindness the pros- 
pective, result. 

Basement stables are usually damp, for the simple reason that they are 
surrounded on three sides by the earth, which lies against the substantial 
masonry. A more fruitful cause of disease cannot be imagined than 
dampness; and when to this be added the want of ventilation, which is too 
often apparent in such barn, we can readily see why the horses sometimes 
suffer, though it is often a matter of surprise that more sickness and disease 
is not produced by such fruitful causes. 

We do not wish to discountenance building such barns as above spoken 
of, for we like to see them and have farmers put them upon their farms, 
provided dampness can be avoided and thorough ventilation secured. 
Under most circumstances, we prefer to stable our horses under shed 
stables, provided they are properly built. These can be made to com- 
mence at the barn, where a door admits of ingress and egress, and the hay 
conveyed along an entry to them. 

This makes rather more work, we admit, but we think it pays. In fu- 
ture we shall only erect new stables in this way, and thus be sure of 
freedom from dampness, darkness and want of ventilation. A farmer who 
has mechanical skill, who knows how to handle ordinary tools, can devise 
and erect such sheds himself, but when it comes to building a barn but 
few will attempt it. 

Where it can be done, have a hard clay or earth floor for your horses to 
stand on in preference to stone, brick, mortar or wooden floors, the latter 
being perhaps the most injurious. Tbe cool, moist earth is the most 
natural, while it is the pleasantest kind of floor for a horse's feet, keeping it 
in sound, healthy condition if ordinary care is taken of the animal other- 
wise. 

Rations for Work Horses. — We have an inquiry, says the National Live 
Stock Journal, as to how it is profitable to feed the heavily-worked horse, 
and as to the cheapest effective ration to use, hay being worth $16; oats, 






70 



LIVE STOCK. 



$22; middlings, $16; new process linseed meal, $25 per ton; straw and corn 
fodder, $6 per ton. 

Here is a pretty good 'list to get rations from. Let us suppose that two 
of corn is ground with one of oats, per weight. Oats being the most ex- 
pensive by weight, we will use less of this grain. In making up a ration, 
particular attention must be given to a proper balance of constituents. The 
horse is useful only for his muscle, and the liberal nourishment of the 
mnscles must be provided for. Corn meal is deficient in albuminoids or 
nitrogenous matter for the muscles. It is particularly rich in heat and 
fat-producing elements, consequently it can be fed in larger proportion in 
whiter than in summer. Middlings are less heating than corn meal, and 
more muscle forming. This food may very properly be used as a consider- 
able part of the ration for work horses. Straw may be used to good effect 
in the work-ration, but there must be more nitrogenous food to balance it. 
If straw only is used as the coarse fodder, then there must be sufficient 
extra nitrogenous food to make it equal to hay. Let us see if we can 
balance the straw to the standard of hay, and still cheapen the ration — 12 
lbs. of hay cost 9.6 cents, 12 lbs. of straw, 3.6 cents. This makes the differ- 
ence in cost 6 cents. The hay has .66 of a pound of digestible albuminoids, 
and the straw has only .16 of a pound; now, the difference is a half a pound. 
Two pounds of linseed meal will more than make up this deficiency, and 
will cost only 2 1-2 cents, leaving a balance of 3 1-2 cents as a saving on the 
use of the straw and linseed meal. 

We will now give a few detailed rations, giving only the digestible 
nutrients, as these represent the value of the food: 



DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS. 



Foods. 



12 lbs. meadow hay... 
6 lbs. corn and oat i 

6 lbs. middlings 

3 lbs. linseed meal . . . 

6 lbs. meadow bay. .. 
6 lbs. oat straw 

6 lbs. corn meal 

7 lbs. middlings 

3 lbs. linseed meal . . . 

12 lbs. oat straw 

6 lbs. corn meal 

7 lbs. middlings 

7 lbs. linseed meal. .. 

12 lbs. corn fodder — 

6 lbs. corn meal 

7 lbs. middlings 

3 lbs. linseed meal . . . 



Albumi- 


Carbo-hyd- 


Fat 


Cost 


noids. 


rates 






Lbs. 


Lbs 


Lbs. 


Cts. 


.66 


4.92 


.06 


9.6 


.54 


4.29 


.28 


5.4 


.60 


2.91 


.19 


4.8 


.90 


.92 


.09 


3.8 


2.70 


13.04 


.62 


23.6 


.33 


2.46 


.03 


4.8 


.08 


2.47 


.04 


1.8 


.45 


4.04 


.19 


4.8 


.70 


3.83 


.19 


5.6 


.90 


.92 


.09 


3.8 














2.46 


13.72 


.54 


2.08 


.08 


4.94 


.08 


3.6 


.45 


4.04 


.19 


4.8 


.70 


3.83 


.19 


5.6 


1.20 


1.23 


.12 


5.0 


2.43 


14.04 


.58 


19.0 


.40 


5.20 


.12 


3.6 


.45 


4.04 


.19 


4.8 


.70 


3.83 


.19 


5.6 


.90 


.92 


.09 


3.8 



.59 



17.8 



LIVE STOCK. 71 

It will be seen that the fourth ration is the cheapest, yet as good as any 
of the rest. This results because the corn fodder is better than the straw, 
but having the same market value. These rations may be relied upon as 
good, practical rations for work horses. The fodder is supposed to be run 
through the cutter, and the ground feed all mixed with it, after moistening 
the cut fodder, and to lie in mass, and warm up somewhat before feeding. 
The linseed meal will be found an excellent food for the horse. It will keep 
the stomach in a healthy condition, and the coat smooth and silky. When 
the horses are at constant work, these rations are none too strong, but if 
they cease work for a considerable time, then the ration may be reduced. 
But it will be a very hopeful sign of improvement in agricultural operations 
when farmers shall keep their teams for steady work. It is certainly very 
unprofitable to have horses standing in the stable half or more of their time, 
as is quite too frequently the case. 

If farmers would raise a nice quality of clover hay (alsike is one of the 
best) for their horses, they might reduce the grain ration, as clover is far 
more nutritious to the muscles than meadow hay; and the question of dust 
does not arise when the clover is moistened and mixed with the grain, as 
here recommended. 

Breeding Horses upon Farms. — The figures given in a late report 
upon live stock in regard to the values of horses, mules, and cattle are 
very well worth the study of all those farmers who are concerned in the 
profitable management of their farms, writes Mr. Henry Stewart in the New 
York Times. From this report we learn that whereas cattle at 3 years old 
average a value of $21 and cows of the same age $27, 3-year-old horses are 
worth $71, and mules of the same age about $80. All farmers know that 
this relative difference in value exists, but it is doubtful if they give much 
consideration to the fact. We have frequently called attention to the profit 
there is in rearing colts, and have had a lively regard for this kind of stock 
since the time when we discovered by pleasing experience that a good 
yearling colt sold for $150, when a yearling heifer brought only $40, and 
that the one cost no more than the other except for the service of the sire, 
which was $25. For ordinary farm stock these figures may be halved and 
will then amount to the usual prices at which these animals are readily 
salable. But we do not wish to be understood as encouraging the sale of 
such young animals. On the contrary, we desire to show that there is a 
greater profit in keeping colts until they are mature and training them care- 
fully and well, and then getting three times the above amount for them, 
which is not difficult to be done. From close figuring we have found that 
a fairly good ordinary colt can be reared the first year for $25, the second 
year for the same, and the third year for $30 — in all $80. At that age the 
animal may be completely trained to work, and if it is sold for no more than 
$160, the profit is 100 per cent, on each year's cost. A 3-year-old cow or 
steer cannot be reared for much less and would sell for about $40 to $60 at 
present prices. If the cost of rearing were but half this there would be far 
less profit in the animal. It is needless to comment upon this statement, 
for we doubt not it will be accepted as the plain, unvarnished truth by our 
readers. But we may be pardoned for saying a few words as to the future 
prospect for a regular business of breeding horses upon farms. It is a 
special business, and it may be feared that the supply may overrun the de- 
mand if a large number of farmers should go into it. This, however, is 
altogether improbable and, so far as experience of the past goes, wholly 



72 LIVE STOCK. 

impossible. It takes three years to rear a horse for work. Under our 
present high-pressure system a large number of horses are worn out 
in three years. There are about 40,000 horses in the city of New York car 
stables alone, which require to be replaced every three years. We doubt 
very much if this number is not too small, and this is only to replace the 
present supply and has no reference to the enormous growth of business 
and other horses which are not worked bo hard and have a longer life. 
This is a drop in the bucket as compared with the needs of the whole coun- 
try. Every railroad built, and ever} 7 additional train of freight cars put on 
existing roads call for more horses at each end. The demand is indeed in- 
satiable. Thousands of farmers never do, and never will, rear their own 
horses, and all these are eager purchasers of fresh stock. A neighbor who 
recently bought a good horse for $275 told me it was the third in eight 
years; this is an outlay of more than $100 yearly for horseflesh, and it is 
merely a sample of what is doing constantly every day in the year all over 
the country. Moreover, a change in the habits of the American people is 
impending. Riding is being found a cheaper way of preserving health than 
paying doctors and buying drugs. The saddle is becoming popular and 
American ladies are adopting the more athletic and healthful habits of 
their English sisters, and a saddle horse is kept in the suburban home 
where it was never thought of before. This pleasing recreation will become 
popular and will stay so. Already there is a call for trained saddle horses 
far ahead of the supply, and it is only the beginning of it. There never was 
yet known in history a surplus of horses, and there never will be. Horses 
are the most profitable of farm stock to the breeder, and with the 
demand in sight and the plain scarcity of these animals, and the 
profit of them, there is no more certainly remunerative, easy, and 
pleasant business for the farmer, who has the will and the tact for it, than 
this. 

Farm Teams. — At no season of the year, says a writer in the American 
Rural Home, are farm teams more crowded with work than in preparing 
for seeding with spring crops, and at no season are they, as a general thing, 
in poorer condition for work. Many farmers are in the practice of allowing 
all except the road team to run in the barnyard and under open sheds, in 
winter, feeding on stalks, straw and hay, with little or no grain. This may 
be a good practice on some accounts. It gives the hoofs opportunity to ex- 
pand and removes all danger of suffering from being pampered. But it 
does not put the horses in good condition for hard work, and the growth of 
long hair, which nature promotes to enable them to resist the cold to which 
they are exposed, will cause them to sweat easily when they commence 
work in the warm spring days. 

Besides, the flesh on them is not of the hardest, toughest kind and will 
not endure hard labor. The skin on their shoulder and back becomes ten- 
der from disuse, and they are very apt to gall badly when put to steady 
plowing. It is certainly very poor policy for farmers to allow their horses 
to get in poor condition for work when work is most urgent and when they 
ought to be in their very best condition, capable of doing their largest day's 
work. The soil may be so wet and cold as to make it advisable to postpone 
working it until it is late for sowing and planting; then, when the soil is m 
suitable condition the farmer wants to push ahead his plowing, harrowing, 
etc., as rapidly as possible. If ho then puts horses to plowing with soft 
muscles, tender shoulders and long hair, they will sweat easily, their soft 






LIVE STOCK. 73 

flesh will disappear, the collars will gall their shoulders and, in two or 
three days they will be unfit for work. 

Horses that have been out of service during winter should be gradually 
prepared and hardened for spring work. Good firm muscles should be 
created by feeding oats and wheat bran, with a small proportion of corn 
meal. They should be thoroughly groomed so as to reduce the thickness 
of their hairy covering, and they should be gradually innured to labor in 
such a way as to harden their breasts before they are put to steady, severe 
labor. If nothing else can be found for them to do, while waiting for the 
ground to dry, it may be well to draw home such fertilizers as may be 
needed through the summer; phosphates, plaster, lime, salt, etc. 

To the man who likes labor there is real pleasure in hitching a span of 
strong horses, in good condition, full of vitality, before a good plow and, 
on a pleasaut spring day, strike a straight furrow across a field and turn 
over the fertile glebe full of the potency of life and activity; there is joy in 
the normal exercise of every organ and every muscle of the body, under 
control of the will, actuated by intelligence. But to work a span of horses 
in poor condition, every effort of which causes pain to them, is as far re- 
moved from pleasure as one can well imagine. Then see to it that your 
brutes are placed in condition to do the work required of them. 

Foul Sheath in Horses. — There is nothing, says a practical farmer, 
that pulls a horse down faster than foul sheath. Farmers and all having 
charge of horses should know that it is no hard matter to clean a horse's 
sheath, and keep it clean. The best way is to feed good wholesome food, 
that will prevent' disease, but that cannot always be done, and then we have 
to resort to a cure, which I find generally a very easy matter. Pare the nails 
of the right hand smooth, and take as much clean lard, iree from salt, as 
can be held by the points of the fingers and thumb; insert the hand to the 
bottom of the sheath, and as the hand is withdrawn, lea^e all the lard. Re- 
peat the operation two or three times at intervals of about two days and my 
experience is that in nine cases out of ten the horse will be all right. If 
not, wash out carefully with lukewarm water, but it is a bad plan to use 
the water in very cold weather. I am now nearly three score years old, 
but never saw a foul sheath until about twenty-five years ago, and I find 
now, when my horses are fed on good pure hay, or well-cured corn fodder, 
free from all mold or dust, that they are not troubled, but while feeding 
hay, it is next to impossible to keep them clean. I have never seen a horse 
troubled with that disease while fed on good corn fodder, 

Horse Education — Any person who has handled horses to even a very 
limited extent, says the Turf, Field and Farm, has noticed that there is a 
great deal of what may be termed human nature about them; that is, sus- 
ceptibility to improve by education. In fact all domestic animals possess 
this power to a certain degree, but the horse is more than commonly en- 
dowed in this respect. If left to himself, however, or but indifferently 
taught when young, the horse, like the neglected boy, will grow up with an 
uncouth carriage, and though a serviceable drudge, will fail to give pleas- 
ure to those who have the management of him. As soon as the colt is 
weaned, he should have good feed, and be handled every day if possible. 
He should be coaxed rather than made by force to do anything. Never use 
a switch or end of a halter strap. Be firm but not overbearing; it will be 
found better to overlook the fault than to attempt to correct it and fail. 



U LI VE STOCK. 

Never lose your temper, for the moment you do so, you at the same time lose 
the advantage you should always have over him. In handling a colt remem- 
ber that you are forming the future horse, and care now taken either in his 
appearance or character, is by no means lost. By the time he is a year old, 
he should allow you to place light articles on Ins back without any resis- 
tance, and should be taught not to be afraid of straps hanging loosely either 
about the body or heels. This education is best done in the winter, and 
should be repeated until perfectly broken, and when harnessed for the first 
time he will quietly permit himself to be driven alongside of a quiet horse. 
During the operation of halter-breaking, great care should be taken to al- 
ways make him walk fast. Fast walking (the best gait of a hor*e) should 
be part of his education, and he will never forget it in his after life. We 
have had a wide experience with colts, and have yet to find one which 
could not make a good walker if properly trained when young; but this is 
a fast age and walking is too slow to keep up with it. 

The Horse and His Driver. — We know a wise driver, who, when he 
observed while " hitching up " that the horses' heads were carried high, 
and that they were feeling first-rate, would say to himself, " There is a 
good head of steam on to-day, and I shall be able to get a good day's work 
out of these fellows, if I save it all to be used to the best advantage." 
Therefore, he would speak in as quiet a tone as possible, would move gen- 
tly about, and aim to get his team afield without any rumpus or excitement, 
and would bear with a few irregularities, such as getting out of the furrow, 
and pulling by fits and starts a few times. The consequence would be that 
when they were warmed up to their work they would move off smoothly, 
and at the same time quickly, and at the end of an hour there would be a 
row of nice even furrows to show as an equivalent for the " steam " which 
a more careless man would have used up in mere fret and worry and pas- 
sion. 

Teaching Horses to Stand._An old horseman gives the following as 
his method of training horses to stand without being tied: After young 
horses have once become entirely bridle-wise, I first endeavor to teach 
them the meaning of every word I say to them. This is not a difficult mat- 
ter, provided too many words are not used at once. The first step is to 
adopt some word at the sound of which they are to understand that they 
must stop. Words that are easy to speak, and which can be made em- 
phatic should be chosen, such as " ho, ' " whoa," etc., and every time the 
word is used the horse to which it i3 spoken should be made to obey it 
fully. Carelessness in regard to this matter will do more to undo what has 
been taught than anything else. When a horse fully understands the 
meaning of the word which you use when you wish him to stop and stand 
still, the greater part of the work is accomplished. He then can be trusted 
with safety while you leave him a short time. To take no risk, and to make 
the work more effective, it is a good plan to get into the vehicle to which a 
horse is hitched, and, having stopped after a short drive, one should get 
out and leave him for a short distance. Should the horse then start, the 
one in the vehicle can draw the lines suddenly, and thus prevent his get- 
ting away. There will be no trouble in teaching any horse with an 
ordinary amount of good common sense to stand as long as you desire 
without being hitched, if a little judgment and patience arc used in at- 
tempting it. 



LIVE STOCK. 



lb 




Cattle Racks and Peed Boxes— The high price that bay has brought 
in market for the past few years teaches each and every feeder of stock to 
use strict economy in feeding this 
staff of animal life. You may be 
the possessor of the best quality 
of hay that ever grew, but unless 
you provide some means lor its 
economical feeding, it will last no 
longer than that of a much in- 
ferior quality fed in the usual 
manner. Provide your cattle 
with wholesome food in a proper 
receptacle, and proper shelter, 
and they, by their sleek appear- 
ance, good condition and health, 
will repay you a thousand-fold. 
We present herewith sketches, 
with descriptions, of several prac- 
tical, serviceable, and economical 
feed racks and boxes, from which we trust our readers may obtain some 
valuable hints and suggestions. The feed rack shown in our illustration 

(Fig. 1), though old, cannot 
be too highly recommended. 
The peculiarity is that a few 
animals only can quietly eat 
from it at the same time; 
therefore, to have all quiet 
in the barn-yard, provide 
racks for the accommodation 
of all the stock at the same 
time. Place the racks under 
shelter, although the general 
health of the animals would 
be greatly improved if the 
arrangements were such as 
on pleasant days, and under shelter during 



FIG. 1. — FEED RACK FOR CATTLE. 







w , -3.*^ 



aw 

FIG. 2. — OUT-DOOR FEED RACK 



to feed them in open air 
inclement weather. The 
heaviness of the racks pre- 
vents their being carried to 
and fro, and is only ob- 
viated by providing a 
double number of them, 
or making in the open air 
one similar to that shown 
in Fig. 2, which is con- 
structed as follows: A pole 
(B) is supported near its 
ends upon crotched sticks 
driven firmly in the ground; 
across the top of pole B 
rest poles, whose lower 
ends are driven in the ground, crossing each other at the angle shown. 
Hay, straw, corn-stalks, and other coarse fodder is thrown in the rack. A 




A VERY CHEAP FEED RACK. 



w 



LIVE STOCK. 



1 


lllll. 


1 |i|| 


!i 




;>U 


P 1 ' 


!!'l 1 lllflll II 1 11 



$-*# 



IN-DOOR FEED r>ox. 



still cheaper plan of rack is shown in Fig. 3. Through the space between 
the third and fourth rails of a common board fence is placed a number of 
small poles, secured in the ground at the opposite side. For keeping apart 
the poles any desired distance, bits of boards are nailed on. They should 
extend and be nailed to the fourth board. Hay is placed between the fence 
and upper portion of the rack. 

Our illustration, Fig. 4, is a perspective view of a feed box of a length 

equal to the distance apart 
of the posts, to which it is 
secured by nailing; the 
bottom board is one foot 
wide; sides, one foot high, 
sloping outward, as indi- 
cated by the end pieces; 
partitions will be neces- 
sary when more than two 
are fed at the same time. 
Often it is not convenient 
to feed under shelter for 
want of room; in this case 
it is well to arrange a box 
similar to that shown in 
Fig. 5. A stake is driven 
in the ground near the 
fence, to which a box is 
nailed. This may be objected to on acccount of its requiring to be cleaned 
after a storm. During the fall and winter many farmers feed their cattle 
on cut straw, roots, grain, etc., for the purpose of fattening, and, in a 
pecuniary point of view, it is profitable. Cattle, during the winter and 
spring, are greatly benefitted by an occasional mess of cut hay or roots. 
The American farmer is not fully awake to the importance of growing roots. 
For feeding stock in England, and even in Canada, roots for feeding are as 
important as hay with us. This is 
an important subject, and will 
bear still further and greater en- 
largement thereon by the agricul- 
tural press. 

Contagious Cattle Diseases. — 

The President and Secretary of 
the International llaugo Associa- 
tion have issued a circular, from 
which we extract: 

Paramount to everything else is 
the necessity of such concert of 
action on the part of all associa- 
tions in the range country as will absolutely protect ua from all possible 
danger from contagious animal diseases. It is a matter of history that the 
introduction of one infected animal upon the ranges of Australia caused a 
loss of over $40,000,000, and practically wiped out the range cattle industry 
on that continent. 

With such a lesson for us to profit by, and with the knowledge that con- 
tagious animal diseases exist in some parts of the United StateH. it becomes 




PIO. 5.— AN OUT-DOOB PEED BOX. 



/, / VE STOCK. 



77 




PEED BACK OB BOX. 



our imperative duty to secure uniform solitary regulations in all the States 
and Territories in the range country, and by the exercise of the police 

powers given by the Constitution of the United States, quarantine on our 
borders all cattle from infected districts, such length of time as experience 
has demonstrated is necessary to establish the fact of their freedom from 
disease. The system of inspection that was in vogue last season is known 
to be faulty; and this fact 
should be a warning to us, 
and cause the most rigid 
enforcement by our own 
people of such radical 
measures as "will secure to 
us absolute protection. 
The necessity for concert 
of action in relation to this 
matter of protection against 
disease, has perhaps had 
more to do than anything 
else in bringing about the 
organization of this range 
association. And the re- 
sults for good that will 
follow from the steps for 
protection that we propose taking, should commend our work to your 
favorable consideration, and merit your earnest and united support. 

When we show to the world that we are going to protect ourselves, and 
by the exercise of that western manhood which has redeemed our plains 
from the savages, and utilized for the food supply of millions, grasses that 
would otherwise rot on the ground or be consumed by fire, we will see a 
degree of confidence established in t]ie minds of conservative capitalists, in 

the permanency and profitable na- 
ture of range investments, that will 
enable us to command cheap money 
with which to build up our great 
industry. 

Feeding RackH and RoieH. - 

Feeding racks or boxes are really a 
-ity in every well-regulated 
barnyard. Farmers who are not 
supplied with them suffer the un- 
lary loss of much valuable 
fodder, which is sure to be scattered 
abort and trampled under foot by 
tock. This loss, although per- 
haps not noticeable by an unobscrv- 
ing person, will be found to amount 
to a great deal in the course- of a year, and the only remedy for it is to pro- 
vide suitable receptacles in which to place the fodder for the stock. 'I 
not only keep the fodder from being wasted and scattered, but also keep it 
clean and palatable. We present herewith several designs for simple, prac- 
tical, and inexpensive feed boxes, which ean be- constructed by anybody, 
and if any of our readers are not supplied with them, we trust the hints 




I 1.1. D I'.OX. 







FIG. 3. — FEED RACK ON BOX. 



78 LIVE STOCK. 

and suggestions offered will be found valuable to them. The feed rack or box 
shown in our illustration (Fig. 1) is constructed as follows: Posts, three by 
four inch scantling, six feet long; side boards, one foot wide and six feet 
long; cross-pieces and top board, six inches wide; about one hundred and 
twenty -five feet of lumber in the whole. Uke ten-penny nails, with good 
wrought nails or bolts where the braces cross each other. Such a frame 
will last many years if well made, and save many times its cost in fodder. 
One is needed for every four head of stock kept in the yards, and they 

should be set about fifteen feet 
apart, in a dry place. 

Another box ot the same 
size, but rather different in 
shape and stronger in con- 
struction, is represented in 
Fig. 2. The four sides, like 
that of Fig. 1 and the one 
which follows, are alike. Four 
can eat out of the box, one on 
each side, and as the heads 
come in contact with each 
other, it makes them more 
greedy. By this means they work up and save considerable coarse fodder 
during the day. 

The rack or box shown in Fig. 3 is nine feet square, with posts of three 
by four inch scantling, five feet high; the sides boarded, but without bottom, 
so as to be shifted easily when the refuse fodder fills it, or any other cause 
makes such a course desirable. The sides are only high enough to keep 
the cattle from getting into the box, and the corners so low that they may 
easily disengage themselves when hurriedly driven away. It should be 
strongly put together with wrought 
nails or rivets through the braces. 

In Fig. 4 we give the end view 
of a rack and box combined, of a 
rustic character. Make first a crib 
of long, heavy poles, say from six 
to eight inches through, five feet 
wide, and two aud a half feet high. 
For ten or twelve head of cattle it 
should be about thirty feet long. 
Then through the middle, length- 
wise, place a strong pole (a) on the 
top of the second cross-piece, as 
shown in the cut. This done, take 
common fence stakes or small poles (d, d) seven feet long, and cross them 
on the middle pole (a) on each side alternately until the whole crib is filled. 
Then lay another pole (c, c) on each side of the crib, well notched into 
cross-pieces (6, b) to prevent their being pushed out of place, and the rack 
is completed. The space between the rack and the Bides of the crib forms 
a manger, into which all the scattering fodder falls, so that there is no 
possibility of the cattle wasting or treading on any. 

Fattening Stock. —It is not every farmer who can fatten an anima) 
economically. It is an art that must be learned by study and practice. 




FIG. 4.— RUSTIC FEED RACK. 



LI YE STOCK. 79 

There are many phases to this subject, and their numerous conditions must 
be thoroughly understood if the farmer would realize the most from his 
feed; quantity of food, quality of food, variety of food, warmth and quiet 
of stables, and many other important items, must be taken in consideration 
in fattening stock As in many other departments of farm labor, there is 
a great lacking here of systematic work. Some are ignorant as to the best 
methods, while others are careless of their real interests, and have no regu- 
larity in their work. Every farmer seems to have his own way, and it is 
too often chosen with regard to the convenience of feeding rather than the 
economy. Ten chances to one he never knows whether he has gained or 
lost on the animal he has sold to the butcher. We cannot lay down any 
definite rules to be followed in fattening stock, and it would be still more 
difficult to follow them up to the letter, supposing they were given. But 
we can learn the general principles of economical feeding, and should never 
rest until they are put into practice. A man of good sense and judgment 
can apply them to his own particular circumstances. I might, for instance, 
say that the most economical method of feeding rough food is by the pro- 
cess of steaming, which would be very true, while at the same time I would 
not advise all farmers to go to the expense of purchasing an apparatus for 
this work. To those who have a large number of animals and proper fa- 
cilities it would be good economy, but to small stock-raisers or fatteners it 
would be impracticable or too expensive to be economical. The same 
might be said of the silo and other theories or methods. Throwing aside 
the discussion ot particular methods, I would beg leave to call the farmers' 
attention to some few things that can be applied alike to all, and in the pro- 
gramme of which the nicest system and regularity should be observed: 

First— Fatten stock in the stall. Turn them out for exercise, but never 
feed in the yard. The animal that is obliged to fight for its food among the 
herd, and eat it after it has been fouled and trampled, cannot thrive up to its 
fullest capacity. There is also an enormous waste of food when given in 
this manner. 

Second— Give the animals warm, well-ventilated, and quiet quarters. 
An animal will take on fat much more readily when it is made comfortable 
and not in constant fear of injury. The idea that an animal should be con- 
fined in a dark stall probably originated in this way. I do not consider 
darkness an important condition; for if the other conditions were attended 
to, there would be no reasonable grounds left for such a theory. Nothing 
should be neglected that will add to the comfort of the animal confined. It 
should be carded and bedded as well as fed. 

Third— Give them their food in such a condition that they can get its full 
nutritive value, and that, too, with the least trouble and annoyance. If the 
fodder is coarse, it should be cut up and sprinkled with meal. A ton of 
cornstalks treated in this way will do more good than a ton and a half 
thrown into the manger whole. If given whole they will nose it over until 
they get all the leaves off, and then commence on the tender portions of the 
stalk, gradually working the mass over until it is thoroughly fouled by 
their breath, causing them to leave nearly half of it uneaten. They should 
have their feed of roots cut up so that they will not be obliged to gnaw 
them off or run the risk of choking. 

Fourth— Feed them regularly and water them regularly. Regular feed- 
ing is an important element in fattening stock, and one that is too olten dis- 
regarded by the farmer. His chores must be done when he can do nothing 
else— before daylight in the morning and after dark at night, with a little 



80 



LI VE STOCK. 




TO PREVENT COWS FROM SUCKING. 
FIG. 1. 



intermediate attention when be happens to be around the house. The idea 
of taking cattle out of a warm stable and turning them into the yard before 

they have fairly eaten their breakfast, 
and leaving them out until dark again, 
is a very barbarous one, and will surely 
work a loss to the farmer who harbors it. 

To Prevent Cows from Sucking 

Themselves.— This very annoying habit 
often contracted by cuws can be easily 
remedied by using the simple little ap- 
pliance shown in our illustration, Fig. 1. 
It consists of a strip of leather, through 
which are driven a number of sharp- 
pointed nails, and this strip or band is 
passed round the head of the animal 
about two inches above the nose, and is 
secured in its place by straps, which 
buckle over the head back of the horns. 
It is usually made similar to a common 
head halter, and an old one can be easily 
fixed to answer the purpose. The nails, with large heads and sharp points, 
are driven through two or three thicknesses of old leather, and this is fas- 
tened to the band passing round the nose, as shown in our engraving, Fig. 
2. This appliance will be found very successful, both where the milk is 
extracted from their own or another 
cow's udder. 

Controlling the Bull's Temper, 
— A correspondent of the New Hamp- 
shire Mirror and Farmer says of the 
management of bulls: 

" The writer having kept bulls 
nearly all the time for more than thirty 
years, and never having had one that 
was vicious or dangerous to handle, 
while others to his knowledge have 
scarcely had one that was kept till two 
years old that did not become too ugly 
to be safely kept, feels that much 
depends on proper management, No 
calf that is to be kept for a bull 
should be played with or handled 
around the head in a way to get 
them to attempt to hook or butt, as 
they almost invariably will if treated 
in this way. Most young creatures 
that are thrifty are frolicsome, like young bulls will many times act, 
when loose in the yard, as if ready for a fight. In such cases the 
keeper should pay no attention to their antics, further tban a light 
cuff if they refuse to go where they should; but never whip or club 
them to get their temper up. Before they are a year old they should have 
a ring in the nose, by which they should ever after be led, and if at any 




TO PREVENT COWS FROM SUCKING.- 
FIQ. 2. 



LI YE STOCK. 81 

time they should incline to be too familiar with their horns, a sharp twitch 
upon the ring will teach them good manners. They should early be taught 
that you are their friend and master; therefore, no one that is inclined to 
fear them or abuse them should have anything to do with them. It is an 
excellent plan to have them mated with an ox or stag, and worked enough 
for sufficient exercise. They can be worked regularly if well kept, and not 
overheated, and it is better than close confinement. If not convenient to 
work them, they can be exercised by putting a post strongly in the ground 
of suitable height, to the top of which a sweep or strong pole is attached, 
so that it will turn on a pivot, with holes in one end in which to put a bow, 
with a light leading pole iu the first one at a suitable distance; then yoke 
in the bull, attaching a rope or leading chain to the ring in the nose and to 
the leading pole, and leave him to exercise himself. 

" Many times a vicious disposition is inherited, and I should value a calf 
very much less for a stock animal if his sire was very vicious: but kindness, 
with firmness and a steady hand, will tend, in a great measure, to overcome 
hereditary traits." 

How to Select a Cow — The best milk cow, as a rule, says a writer in 
the Agricultural Gazette (English), is of medium size and small-boned. 
The head is small and rather long, narrow between the horns and wide be- 
tween the eyes. The lips are long and thick, giving the muzzle a flat ap- 
pearance. The ears are thin, covered with long, but soft, silky hair, the 
inside of the ear being of a rich orange color. The eyes are large and 
bright, with a placid expression, the horns set on a high pate, bending out- 
ward at the base, and light, clear, and smooth; the neck long, clean, and 
thin, slender and well cut under the throat, thickening handsomely as it 
approaches the shoulder, but entirely free from anything like a "beefy" 
appearance. The shoulder-blades should meet narrow at the tip, widen- 
ing gradually toward the points, which should be broad and well-rounded; 
the ribs rather straight and wide, indicating a good digestion and constitu- 
tion, for everything depends on that in a good milch cow. The loins 
should be broad and the hips high and wide; the rump even with the hips; 
the pelvis wide, giving plenty of room for the udder; the thighs thin; the 
hind le.^s a little crooked, and small below the hock, with a long, large 
foot. The udder should be long and broad, with the teats all the same 
size and well set apart; the belly to sag a little in front of the udder, and 
rise slowly as it approaches the brisket, and somewhat large as compared 
with the size of the cow. The tail long and slim, tapering gently to the end. 
The hair must be soft, indicating a mellow skin, which, on taking in the 
hand, feels like soft kid gloves, and no coarse, rough hair will grow on such 
skin. The color of the skin should be of a rich butter-yellow. This is the 
first point in handling. Then, pass your hand on the belly in front of the 
udder and feel the " milk veins." They are an infallible mark of a good 
milk cow. The larger they are the better the indications. In extra good 
cows they branch out into four veins, but they all unite before reaching the 
udder. The more irregular the course the more sure you may be the cow 
is a good milker. The udder should be covered with a short, downy coat 
of hair. This hair should begin to turn its backward course from the front 
teata, then on the back part of the udder, called the escutcheon, and on as 
far as the vulva, in the best cows. The wider the belt of this upturned 
hair the better; it should be soft and velvety, covering a soft, orange-col- 
ored skin. 






82 LIVE STOCK. 

Feeding Cattle.— It has been claimed that the methods of breeding 
and feeding cattle have been so much improved of late years that the period 
of maturity has been hastened more than one half. That is, a sheep or a 
pig which matured at three years, or a steer which was ready for slaughter 
at five years formerly, is now ready for the butcher at less than half these 
ages. Pigs are said to be ready for pork at nine months, wethers for mut- 
ton at twenty months, and a two-year old steer is ready for the block at that 
age. It is to be feared that these claims are greater than can be justly al- 
lowed. No doubt some animals, by excessive forcing, are made as fat, and 
reach as heavy a weight at these premature ages as others used to in twice 
the time; but it is a questiou if this forcing is profitable either to the feeder 
or the consumer. On the one hand, the animal is forced to consume as 
much food in two years as was formerly spread over four years, so that on 
the whole there is no gain but in time, while on the other hand the con- 
sumer .has very immature or halt-grown meat, which is devoid of flavor and 
nutritive quality, and the meat is overloaded with fat, which is waste. 

Physiologically it is a matter of doubt if the muscular growth of an 
animal can really be hastened by any process of feeding. Fat can be pro- 
duced, no doubt, but fat is a diseased condition of the system, and an 
excessively fat animal would soon die under continued feeding. But if we 
examine the meat of one of these young overgrown animals it is found to be 
in great disproportion to the fat. It is quite common, for instance, for the 
nine months old pig which weighs 300 pounds to be turned wholly into the 
lard kettle because the few pounds of flesh under the fat is not salable or 
useful as food. On the whole, it certainly does appear as if we had carried 
the forcing system of feeding to an unprofitable extreme. Every year the 
losses of swine by disorders clearly traceable to over feeding increase in 
number, and although we are told that the dreaded diseases have been 
overcome and have disappeared, yet the feeding season no sooner begins 
again when the hog cholera breaks out as plentifully as at any time before. 
It is a question if we can safely follow English precedents in this respect 
of forcing animals to prematurity. Certainly, if we are to suffer the pains 
and penalties, the diseases and losses among our live stock which English 
farmers are complaining of, it is very clear that we cannot afford to do it, 
and had better make haste more slowly. 

Quality Depends upon tlie Feed— The quality of the carcass de- 
pends upon the kinds of feed given the animals which are fatted for the 
market; which fact has been determined by repeated experiments for that 
purpose. Some substances used for feeding will fatten more readily than 
others, while certain foods will give a quality of fat and lean that cannot be 
derived through any other method. The custom of feeding pea-meal and 
oil cake is a growing one, and gives excellent results in enabling the ani- 
mals to take on fat, but the carcasses of those fed in that manner have not 
compared favorably with steers and hogs fed upon corn and corn-meal as 
an additional ration. We lately inspected thirty carcasses of the best steers 
in the country, they hanging side by side, and it required no expert to 
easily select the corn-fed animals from the others, as the hard, solid fat 
was in striking contrast with the soft blubber of those of the animals which 
had been deprived of corn*. If, however, stockmen are to rely solely upon 
corn, it deprives them of the valuable assistance of other foods, but we 
think such difficulty may be avoided by first feeding them up to the proper 
condition desired, using corn alone during the latter portion of the time of 



LIVE STOCK. 83 

fattening. This rule is well known to those who feed hogs, the corn being 
reserved for the final process. 

Cutting Feed for Stock:. —This is the most economical method of feed- 
ing up straw, stalks, second quality hay, etc. By cutting these coarser 
fodders and mixing them with meal or bran almost every particle will be 
eaten. But another point is gained. Such fodder uncut is hard to digest, 
and a large bulk must be eaten to get even enough to sustain animal life 
and warmth through the winter. Any assistance we can give to digestion 
by previous preparation of the fodder is so much help to the animal, and 
this, when milk or fat is looked for, is an important consideration. Straw be- 
comes a nutritious article of lood when a little meal or bran is mixed with 
it, and a few pounds of middlings will make it the equivalent in feeding 
value to hay. When grain is scarce, the part which oat-straw plays in the 
feeding ration is worth consideration. When much stock is kept a large 
cutter should be provided, and enough cut at a time to last several days. 
Two or three farmers can combine and purchase a large cutter, thus saving 
expense. But for a few head as stock a common hand straw-cutter will be 
sufficient. 

Milking Cows. — A writer in the Agricultural Gazette, England, says: 
" On no account, if it can possibly be helped, ought one man constantly 
to milk the same cow. If he does, it often happens that the cow becomes 
attached to him, and if anything occurs that he is away there is frequently 
quite a scene in consequence. If a cow shows partiality for anyone he 
should milk her as little as possible." Many men of many minds. This is 
just the rule that we would reverse, and if we found the man who could get 
the cows attached to him, he is just the one we would attach to ourselves. 
We would be perfectly willing to take the chances of our losses from his 
occasional absence. In the first place there is no need for disturbing the 
cow's equanimity simply because you are not in the habit of milking her. 
If there is any difference of opinion between you, it is much easier for you 
to give way to the cow's peculiarities than to force your own idiosyncrasies 
upon her. Be gentle and patient and she will give you all her milk, and if 
you are not able to hold your temper until the regular milker comes back, 
then sell out and go to breaking rocks on the road. You can expend all the 
temper on those rocks and on your own fingers that your position calls for. 
The man who can get a cow attached to him can, in the course of a year, 
get a large percentage more from her than a constant change of milkers 
could accomplish, and it is, therefore, best to get this class of milkers, and 
in their temporary absence use extra precaution to see that the cows are 
not unduly excited or treated in any way out of the usual routine. 

Cleanliness and the Cattle.—" Cleanliness is next to godliness." This 
thought may as well apply to our stables, barns, and out-houses as 
to the dwellings; to the care of the cattle — whose milk and flesh we eat— as 
to personal care. We may about as well take filth at first hands as to allow 
it to pass through our domestic animals, taking it in the form of milk, beef, 
or pork. Both the milk and the flesh must partake of the quality of the 
fodder given to a far greater extent than is ordinarily supposed. It is 
known that the milk will indicate the kind of vegetables fed to the cow. If 
so, is it strange that the flesh of the same cow — made from the food eaten — 
will be pure or impure, according to the articles given ? It is folly to expect 
pure and wholesome milk while the cow is fed on inferior hay, decaying 



84 LIVE STOCK. 

vegetables, drinking from a well within the limitb of the barn-yard, sup- 
plied from the surface water of that yard, saturated with the filth of such a 
place. The water given to the cows should be as pure as that used in the 
family. Such water is not found in such a well. 

It is a folly to suppose that the flesh of the hog is fit for use while the 
liver is found ulcerated, by feeding abominable garbage. It is absurd to 
suppose that pork is fit for the table when the hog is fed on filth, is kept in 
a close pen, wallows in filth, in his own odure, and always breathes filthy 
air. While it is true that a large class of scavengers— of which the swine is 
prominent, made to consume the filth that the higher orders may survive— 
are able to live in filth, consume decaying matters, breathe foul air, it is 
not true that their flesh is at all improved by habits which would be unsafe 
for man, * 

If we would be healthy and pure, we must breathe pure air and eat pure 
food, which will equally apply to the domestic animals. All of these princi- 
ples apply to man and beast alike. 

Skim Milk as Cow Food— On this subject Prof. Arnold says that all 
easily digested foods which contribute to the building up of flesh.and the 
framework of the body are especially efficient in stimulating a flow of milk. 
Among the foods of this kind are cottonseed meal, linseed- meal, bran from 
the various cereals, and every kind of clover and every species of peas. 
These foods influence the quantity of milk by reason of the high per cent, 
of albuminous or flesh-forming matter they contain. The composition of 
skim milk would entitle it to be classed with that sort of food, and its use 
as a milk-producing food proves it, worthy of the position. Just as flesh 
when used as food is perfectly adapted to lorming flesh again, the use of 
milk by milk-giving animals is perfectly adapted to reconstruct milk. It is 
decidedly an albuminous product, and consequently contributes to swelling 
the flow. 

To secure best result, skim milk should be fed in good condition. Its 
value is not all destroyed by souring, but it is thereby considerably reduced. 
Sweet skim milk is believed to be about fifty per cent, better than sour 
milk as cow feed. When skim milk will increase a cow's butter product 
$10 a year when fed back to her in a sour and loppered state— and this is 
about its usual efficiency— the same milk fed sweet would add $15 to her 
increase in the same time. Any acidity in the milk when fed is objection- 
able. 

Injury to Cows by Allowing Calves to Suck. — There is no truer 
thiug in my experience, and I believe in that of hundreds of others, than 
that allowing a calf to suck is an injury to the cow. This injury is more or 
less permanent according to how long it is continued, and doubtless de- 
pends largely upon the vigor and digestive powers of the calf, and the 
quantity, of milk given by the dam. The udder of a young cow, thus 
treated in the full flush of her yield, loses capacity to hold a large "mess " 
of milk, if it ever had it, and older cows becoming accustomed to the steady 
halt-hourly drafts of the calf, fall off in their yield rapidly after the calf is sent 
to the market. Calves, it is true, usually fatten better on the cow than as fed 
in general practice in this country, but our practice is certainly wrong, and 
I am by no means sure a calf may not be just as well fattened off as " on 
the cows." In fact, I have once or twice fattened a calf so well "on the 
pail" that the butcher complimented the veal, saying that any one could 






LI VE STOCK. 85 

see that that was no skim-milk calf, whereas, after the first three days of 
its life, it had had no milk which was not skimmed. The loss of cream was 
made up to the calf by as much scalded linseed-meal cake as was judged 
good for it, and it always had a wisp of sweet hay, or bite of grass in its 
season, to nibble upon. All calves are not alike in this respect, but where 
milk is the principal +hing, veal is secondary, and so we are willing to sac- 
rifice something of the excellence of the veal to the good of the dam. 

When a deep-milking cow has two calves put upon her, their thrift will 
often indicate an enormous milk secretion. I presume no harm comes 
from this practice commenced after a cow is four or five years old, but 
thousands of good heifers are spoiled every year because, not being pleas- 
ant to milk, their calves are left to run with them. Their udders never be- 
coming distended, they lack capacity to carry their milk from one milking 
to another, and when their calves are taken away, not only do the teats 
leak, but the discomfort caused by the unusual distension of the udder re- 
sults in a decrease of yield. Whereas, had the distension occurred when 
the whole system was in the plastic condition in which it is just after calv- 
ing, when the udder is naturally swollen and more or less painful, it would 
have become for life adapted to the circumstances and would be of increas- 
ing capacity. , 

A very sensible article is going the rounds of the papers, showing that it 
is just because wild cows have their calves running with them that they 
never give much milk. It seems lolly for farmers who want milk to follow 
th^ course which they can see in nature produces just such results as they 
do not want. I was surprised to find that a good mare gave fourteen quarts 
of milk in a day, and yet most mares will sustain in good order a larger 
animal than a big calf, and one which grows much faster. This fourteen 
quarts of milk was given when the colt was weaned. What is it fair to as- 
sume was given by the mare during the period soon after foaling, the time 
when cows yield most ? In cows, of course the decrease of milk is not ob- 
served until the system of milking twice a day is adopted. So long as the 
calf takes its rations as often as it can digest what it takes, the flow keeps 
up, but it renders the cow more or loss incapable of carrying the milk pro* 
duced, and of producing more than she can comfortably carry. 

The desirableness, therefore, of promptly removing the calf from the 
cow is apparent. It is in fact demanded by every motive of economy. A 
calf is easily taught to drink, and will empty a pail of milk in a very short 
time. The usual practice is to leave the calf with the cow three days, and 
then remove it, because the milk may then be used. It is better never to 
leave the calf suck, unless the condition of the udder be such that the but>- 
ting and, so to speak, manipulations, of a hungry calf, are needed to reduce 
swellings and cakey masses within the udder. 

The system of allowing calves to drink from the pail is an evil one in 
every respect, except merely that it is better for the cow that they should 
drink rather than suck her. The practice of feeding calves, by means of 
what is termed a " calf feeder," is a growing one in England. This is a 
pail arranged with a close fitting top and a rubber teat upon the top of it, 
which is connected with a tube having a simple valve at the lower end 
which lies or is fastened in the bottom of the pail. I put this apparatus in, 
use this year, getting up one for a neighbor who was unfamiliar with its 
construction, and the results have been most satisfactory. 

The objection to a calf drinking from a pail is, that by this means no 
saliva of any account is mingled with the milk. The effect of this fluid in 



86 LIVE STOCK. 

aiding digestion is well known, and it is a fact, also well known by every 
farmer, that calves fatten much more rapidly, and better, as a rule, upon 
the cow than upon the pail, even if they get a pailful of new milk fresh and 
warm from their dams morning and night. A good many calves become 
" pot-bellied ' from drinking rapidly, and I have no doubt are thus perma- 
nently dwarfed. I am by no means certain that skimmed milk taken slowly 
by the operation of sucking, will not prove of more real tenefit to a calf 
than whole milk drank rapidly. In the home-made calf-feeder above al- 
luded to, the contraction of the larger tube is affected by placing, for a 
short distance, a small one inside of it. This secures slowness ot flow, and 
enforces sucking and mouthing necessary to the flow of saliva.— American 
Agriculturist. 

Cooking Feed for Live Stock. — The question, writes Mr. E. W. Ab- 
bott, of Ann Arbor, Mich., that is agitating the farming community of to- 
day is, " Does it pay to cook grain for live stock ?" We all know that cooked 
food is much better, but some think that it is too much " trouble." Now, 
if a man is paid for his steps, why not as well take them on his own farm as 
anywhere else ? About two years ago we commenced cooking feed for our 
stock, and I am satisfied that we have saved one-third at least. This year 
we fattened twenty hogs and did not feed any sound corn. We had two 
hundred bushels of soft corn; this we cooked with little trouble and less 
expense. We also had about three thousand head of cabbage freeze; 
these, with some beets and turnips, were cooked and fed with the corn. I 
am not positive that there are much fattening properties in cabbage, but it 
was a change of feed, and the hogs seemed to ivlisb it and did not lose any 
flesh, and some store hogs we had shut up and fed on cooked cabbage were 
in good flesh when the cabbage " played out." In feeding corn to horses 
we think that eight ears of cooked corn are better than twelve uncooked. 

I will copy a few lines from the " United States Agricultural Report," 
which will show the superiority of cooked food over uncooked. Mr. S. S. 
H. Clay, of Kentucky, shows that one bushel of raw corn makes six pounds 
of pork, while one bushel cooked makes seventeen and a half pounds. 
This result is very remarkable, but Mr. James Buckingham gives an ex- 
periment where three and a half bushels of uncooked corn made nineteen 
pounds of pork, and one bushel cooked made twenty-two pounds, and Mr. 
T. J. Edge, detailing an experiment, says: 

I found that five bushels of raw corn made forty-seven three-quarter 
pounds of pork, while the same amount of corn cooked made eighty-seven 
three-quarter pounds. 

Mr. E. W. Stewart, of New York, sums up the result of cooking as fol- 
lows: 

1st. It renders mouldy hay, straw, and corn stalks, sweet and palatable. 

2d. It diffuses this odor of the bran, corn, meal, carrots, or whatever is 
mixed with the food through the whole mass, and thus it may be cheaply 
flavored to suit the animal. 

3d. It softens the tough fibres of the dry corn stalks, straw, and other 
hard materials, rendering them almost like green, succulent food, and 
easily masticated and digested. 

4th. We have found it to cure incipient heaves in horses, and horses 
having a cough at pasture have been cured in two weeks on steamed food. 
It has a remarkable effect upon horses with a sudden cold and in constipa- 
tion. Horses fed upon it seem much less liable to disease; in fact, in this re- 



LIVE STOCK. . 87 

spect it seems to have all the good qualities of grass, the natural food of 
animals. 

5th. It regulates the digestion, and makes the animal more contented 
and satisfied; it enables fattening stock to eat their food with less labor 
(and consequently requires less to keep up the animal heat), gives working 
animals time to eat all that is necessary for them in the intervals of labor, 
and this is of much importance, especially with horses. 

6th. It enables the feeder to fatten animals in cne-third less time, and 
saves at least one-third of the food. We have found two bushels of cut and 
cooked hay to satisfy cows as well as three bushels of uncooked, and the 
manure in the case of the uncooked contaiued much more fibrous matter 
unutilized by the animal. This is more particularly the case with horses. 

Some think that because they do not feed more than five hundred 
bushels of corn in a winter that it will not pay them to cook it. Let us see. 
Corn when cooked swells to two and a half times its natural size; now, al- 
lowing that there is no more fattening property in cooked than uncooked 
corn, we gain one and a half bushels, which, at thirty cents per bushel, will 
give us $225, which, for five months, is $45 per month, fair wages for winter 
time. As this is the profit on corn alone, we have a clear gain on all the 
rough feed we cook. This enables the farmer to keep a third more stock, 
and will eventually enable us to supply the demand of the eastern markets. 

Feeding for Fat. — There are several points of view from which the 
subject of feeding animals for fat may be considered, writes Mr. Henry 
Stewart in the New York Times. Some exceedingly varied opinions are 
held in regard to it by experts, and these differ so essentially as to produce 
distrust and doubt in the minds of perso'ns who are unable to decide be- 
tween them. We therefore wish to refer to and compare together some of 
these opinions. As was stated in the preceding article upon this subject, 
we consider excessive fatness to be a disease which is fatal in course of 
time; a shorter or longer period, in proportion to the physical weakness 
or robustness of the animal. But a moderate degree of fatness is quite con- 
sistent with health, and is, indeed, conducive to it, as it provides a store of 
heat-producing material which can be drawn upon at any time it may be 
required, and which is deposited in the tissues in readiness to be absorbed 
when it is wanted to make up any deficiency, or to meet any increased de- 
mand of the system, and this deposit of fat in the tissues, acts also as a 
non-conductor of heat and prevents the loss of it from the body under ex- 
posure to unusual cold. It is thus a most important regulator of health 
and comfort. We find both of these conditions met in the cases of the wild 
animals which hibernate and exist through the winter, comfortably sleep- 
ing through the cold season, and being supported by the store of fat in the 
tissues and under the skin. Another instance of this wise provision of na- 
ture is afforded by the whales and olher warm-blooded mammals of the 
ocean which have a thick layer of fat under the skin as a defense from the 
icy coldness of the water. But it should be observed that when not ex- 
posed to this cold these animals lose their excessive fatness and become 
lean and so preserve their health, which would be endangered or destroyed 
by the excessive warmth of the blood and its consequent inflammatory con- 
dition. This coincidence of fat and cold and leanness and warmth is a bal- 
ance of nature which cannot be disturbed without danger of serious results. 
This same danger exists through high feeding for fat, and if this is con- 
tinued past a certam point, which varies with circumstances, the animal be- 



88 LIVE STOCK. 

comes diseased, and a prey to various contagions which develop certain 
well-known fatal fevers in the system. This condition of an animal as the 
result of excessive feeding is well explained by Dr. Sturtevant, who says 
respecting highly fed cows: 

" The high-pressure feeding produces inflammation of the blood, caus- 
ing an abnormal development of fatty matter in the milk. Many writers 
delight in comparing the fat on the cow's body to the fat in her milk, both 
being developed by the same physiological process. Now it is well known 
to competent authorities that the fat on the body, under high-pressure feed- 
ing, is a mass of rottenness, and can be produced in large quantities in a 
short space of time. There is no reason why a similar process should not 
take place when feeding for "records." The consumers of such flesh and 
such butter may bring deserved retribution upon themselves, for any 
scourge sweeping over the land will drive them to their last hiding-place." 

Other writers, misled, we fear, by want of sufficient knowledge, have 
maintained the contrary of this, and that excessive fat is a legitimate object 
in feeding and forcing extremely young cattle to a condition of extreme 
obesity at a very early age. We think sensible farmers, dairymen, and 
stockmen, will not take this latter view, but the more reasonable one that 
not only is the fat so produced a mass of diseased and unheal thful matter, 
but that the flesh under it and the blood from which both are directly de- 
rived are equally impure and diseased. 

This view explains fully how it is that swine in process of fattening in 
the least possible time, and crowded with corn, are so subject to the fatal 
intestinal fever, and why the noted cows forced up to a high record drop 
off one by one, and meet an untimely fate by milk fever, lung fever, splenic 
fever, and other inflammatory diseases. It also explains why the process 
of feeding for fat should be slow and not hasty, and the animal should have 
matured its growth of flesh before the final fat is laid upon it, and, more- 
over, why the feeding should progress gradually, and no faster than the 
animal's power of digestion and assimilation will warrant in due regard to 
healthfulness. Unwholesome meat produces in persons who consume it 
the very same inflammatory diseases with which it is infected. This is 
shown most conclusively by the fact that the flesh of animals infected with 
anthrax fever will cause the very same disease— malignant pustule— in 
persons who eat the meat, and it may very easily be as true that butter 
made from cows which are in a diseased condition from excessive feeding 
may be charged with a deadly virus fatal to those persons who unknowingly 
partake of it. 

Live Stock in Winter. — The shrinkage of stock the first few weeks of 
winter often amounts to as much as the summer gain. Animals are left to 
shift for themselves when cold weather comes on, and to get their living 
from the frost-bitten grass, which really has but little virtue in it. If not 
left to themselves to roam over the fields without any care, they are gener- 
ally thrown a few cornstalks or other coarse fodder, which is so distasteful 
to them that they will not eat it, and so go hungry; meanwhile the winds 
are keen and chilling and the animals stand around humped up and shiv- 
ering. With empty stomach they huddle together in some corner as much 
out of the wind as possible, trying to keep warm. This is the usual condi- 
tion of stock, including the horses, until winter sets in and the snow gets 
so deep that pasturing is impossible. This management can only result in 
a rapid falling away which is often fully 25 per cent, of their entire weight. 



LIVE STOCK. 89 

Colds and diseases are sure to follow neglect and this careless treatment, 
which may last all winter. 

As soon as the ground freezes animals should be put up at night and fed 
extra. It is a mistaken idea and the poorest kind of economy to give them 
any sort of feed at this time, as they should have the best of food. The 
transition from the succulent pasture to dry feed is so great that the appe- 
tite must be tempted with the best the barn affords. This is specially ap- 
plicable to the young thing who will not eat coarse and rough feed except 
at the point of starvation. After animals become accustomed to dry fodder 
and to the winter air, the older ones may be kept on the poorer feed and 
they will eat it well; but the lambs, calves and young colts should always 
- have the best. When a young animal gets stunted in the winter it takes all 
the following summer to get started again. Here is the loss of a year's 
growth, or rather the loss of a year's feeding, to make up for a want of 
sense on the part of the owner. 

Animals should always be kept for a profit, and the profit comes from 
the growth. The manure they make is the compensation for the time and 
labor spent in taking care of them, and the increase in the size or weight is 
the farmer's gam. If they are allowed by neglect to run down in condition, 
or so manage that there is no increase in weight, we fail to see any profit in 
keeping animals. With hundreds of farmers there is no gain. A large por- 
tion of the summer is spent by them to lay up food for their stock in win- 
ter, and for the lack of forethought and prudence in caring for their stock 
the spring finds them no better off than they were in the autumn. They 
may say we have wintered so much stock, but the barns are emptied of the 
summer toil, and there is nothing but the number to balance the account. 

Another common mistake is the trying to keep more stock than there is 
feed and comfortable accommodations for. Three half-starved cows are 
not as good as one well fed, and they will not yield any more milk or make 
any more butter. Two rollicking, well-fed and well-housed calves are 
worth more than four poor ones, and so it is with all kinds of aninmls. It 
is also true that the manure of thin animals is not worth so much as that of 
thrifty ones. The cold winds of November are as trying in proportion to 
animals as they are to people. This should always be borne in mind and 
ample shelter provided. A little meal will help wonderfully to keep out 
the cold, as it will give strength and thicken the blood. A few roots added 
to the meal will complete the diet, and make an appetite not easily cloyed, 
and also prevent the feverish tendencies which follow stimulating food. In 
the order of importance in the autumn care of stock there would be, first, 
shelter; second, plenty of good food. When both are supplied, humanity 
and profit are combined. 

Keeping a Cow Upon a Small Plot of Land. — Many persons would 
keep a cow if they could be assured of a sufficient supply of feed. The 
average milk that can be purchased, and "store" butter, are very inferior 
to those made at home. It is a fact that a small cow can be well kept for 
ten cents a day, including winter feediug. With half an acre of ground de- 
voted to producing fodder, a cow may be fed through the whole summer 
and part of the winter. For instance, half an acre is eighty square rods. 
One square rod a day of good grass, corn-fodder, or oats and peas, will 
feed a cow of 450 or 500 pounds (the average weight of a Jersey or Ayrshire 
heifer) for one day, and there will be some to spare. The ground may be 
made to produce two or three crops in the season. Twenty square rods 



90 LIVE STOCK. 

may be seeded down at any time in August with Red-Clover and Orchard- 
Grass, and then afterwards top-dressed liberally with manure. This will 
give a heavy cutting in May or June, which will feed a cow for twenty days, 
and may be cut again in July or August. Sow twenty rods to rye in August, 
which may be cut before the grass and clover is ready, and may then be 
sown to oats or Hungarian Grass, which will be ready to cut in July, and 
the ground sown to barley, fodder-corn, rutabagas or turnipB. Twenty 
rods may be sown to oats in March or April, to cut in June or July, when 
the ground may be planted with sweet corn for fodder, with turnips sown 
between the rows. Twenty rods may be sown with peas early in April, 
which will bo ready to cut in May or June, and the ground may be planted 
with cabbages at two feet apart, giving 1,300 or 1,400 heads in the fall for 
late feeding. There will in all be the equivalent of an acre and a quarter 
of crops, which, well manured with the droppings of the cow, can be made 
to produce a very large yield. The foddering will be about as follows: 
April, rye; May, grass and clover; May and June, peas; June and July, 
oats; July and August, grass and clover and iodder-corn; September, bar- 
ley or fodder-corn, and thinnings of the turnips; October and November, 
cabbages, and some of the surplus fodder which has not been consumed, 
but has been dried for this purpose. After this will come tbe turnips, 
helped out by the remainder of the dry fodder, and hay will need to be pur- 
chased to get through the winter. There must be no time lost in replant- 
ing, but as the crop is cut in strips through the plot it should be sown at 
once, if only a strip six feet broad or as wide as a swathe of the scythe will 
leave. For the cultivation of such a plot the Rue hand-plow and cultivator 
would be sufficient, and it would be no more than agreeable recreation for 
the owner of the cow and his family to do the little farming that will be 
needed, with the occasional help of a boy to wheel the manure out of the 
yard to spread upon the ground as soon as it is sown or planted. The cow 
should be bedded with dry earth or hard-wood sawdust, and the yard 
should be littered in the same manner and frequently scraped clean. The 
comfort derived from having plenty of milk, cream, butter, butter-milk, 
pot-cheese, and the puddings and other things only possible with plenty of 
milk, that will come upon the family table during the year in consequence of 
an abundance of it, will well more than repay the light labor involved. — 
American Agriculturist. 

The Feeding Virtues of Bran— In an article under this heading in 
the N. Y. Times, Alexander Hyde shows, from the analysis and manufac- 
ture of bran, that it is of very high value for stock feeding, and that Graham 
flour i that is, flour retaining the bran) is a more wholesome and nutritive 
food than flour when bolted. In concluding an elaborate article on the 
subject, he says: 

The conclusion is irresistible that bran has not been sufficiently appreci- 
ated as food for stock in past times, and that Dr. Graham was right when 
he recommended unbolted flour as the best for bread-making. Graham 
flour is specially adapted for children, as it furnishes the material for 
making bones and developing good teeth. Some objection is made to the 
use of bran by farmers, as it has a laxative tendency. This is due to me- 
chanical not chemical influences — the coarse particles, when fed alone, 
often irritating the intestines, especially at the first feeding, if given in large 
quantity. This may be obviated by feeding bran gradually at first, and in 
connection with hay. A slightly laxative condition of the bowels is far 



LIVE STOCK. 91 

healthier than one of constipation; and if children are troubled with the 
latter, Graham flour is just the food they need. 

Oue great recommendation of bran as food for stock is that it makes the 
manure-pile so rich. A large proportion of the inorganic matter (ash) in 
bran is composed of the various phosphates, just what most old soils need, 
these salts having been carried off in the milk and meat sold. We have 
seen wonderiul changes produced on old farms by liberal feeding of cows 
with wheat bran. The pastures in a few years have renewed their age. 
Rye bran is not quite so rich in ash as w 7 heat, but it makes an excellent 
food for producing milk, as it contains over twelve percent, of proteine com- 
pounds, just the tiling for cheese making, and over two per cent, of fats. 
Indeed, dairy farmers generally give the preference to rye«bran, and one 
reason is that it is finer, and does not induce such a laxative condition of 
the bowels. 

Effect of Exercise and Excitement on Milk. — The dairyman's pocket 
is sensibly affected by a proper understanding of this question. But there 
are very few, comparatively, who have discovered the real effect of exercise 
upon the milk product. Many suppose that severe exercise in the cow sim- 
ply affects the quantity, but not particularly the quality; and a still greater 
number have never given the matter any consideration, but evidently do 
not think it has any bad effect, as witness those who worry their cows with 
dogs. Many allow T their cows to be driven on a run to and from pasture, 
no doubt regarding this as so much gain in time. But any violent exercise 
has a serious effect upon the most valuable element in the milk— tbe butter. 
Liebig observed that the milk of the cow had a much larger proportion ot 
caseine when subjected to much exercise. Dr. Carpenter suggested that this 
comes from the breaking down of nitrogenized tissues. He also states that 
cows in Switzerland that pasture on the sides of steep mountains, and are 
obliged to use great muscular exertion, yield a very small quantity of but- 
ter but a large proportion of cheese; yet the same cows, when stall-fed, 
give a large quantity of butter and a very small proportion of cheese. 

It seems to be well settled that active exercise or excitement lessens the 
proportion of butter in milk. How important the application of these tacts 
are to profitable dairying, must be evident to any one. Those who have 
been in the habit of driving their cows long distances to pasture, and re- 
turning them in the evening to be milked, will see the necessity of discon- 
tinuing this, or if that cannot be done, they will see the propriety of driving 
them as steadily and leisurely as possible. Any large amount of exercise 
is at the expense of the yield and quality of the milk, but excitement from 
rough treatment is most unprofitable of all, and a dairyman who employs a 
rough, passionate milker among his cows does little better than he who 
worries them with a dog. Such a man may easily reduce the yield and 
quality of the milk in the herd more than all his labor is worth. He de- 
serves to be treated as he treats the cows — kicked off the premises; but, as 
violence only excites violence, it is better to restrain such indignation, and 
inform him with all due courtesy, that his manners cannot longer be suf- 
fered to demoralize the herd. 

Indeed, this is not a small matter; it would take millions to compensate 
for the losses sustained from the rough, brutal treatment of dairy stock. 

We trust that dairymen will begin at the commencement of the season to 
study, not only the points given in this article, but everything relating to 
the improvement of their herds. Let every cow be examined, and her good 



92 LIVE STOCK. 

and bad qualities noted, all from the standpoint of profit; that is what thoy 
are kept for, and it is not unlikely that when brought to the standard of 
profit many in most herds of much size will be found unprofitable, and 
they should be weeded out. — Nat. Live Stock Journal. 

Pumpkins as Pood for Milk—Prof. F. H. Storer, of the Bussy Insti- 
tution, maue a thorough analysis of pumpkins and squashes in 1877. The 
average of his analysis ot the whole pumpkin is about ten to twelve per 
cent, of water, but not more than the turnip or fodder corn, and it is com- 
paratively rich in albuminoids. This vegetable is an important auxiliary in 
producing milk; but some dairymen have got a prejudice against it, from 
the effect of the seeds when given in too large a quantity. The seeds have a 
diuretic effect, operating on the kidneys, and this has sometimes lessened 
the flow of milk, but if a small portion of the seeds is removed, the danger 
is wholly avoided. And probably the cases of injury have been occasioned 
from feeding more than the due proportion of seeds. Thirty pounds of 
pumpkins fed to each cow per day will increase the yield, and improve the 
quality of the milk; but more than this should not be given. They are a 
very cheap food, since it requires very little labor to produce them. From 
two to three tons may be grown, with a good yield of corn, per acre, re- 
quiring little more than placing the seeds, at distances of twenty feet apart, 
in alternate rows of corn, after the corn is up. The cultivation of the corn 
will be sufficient attention to the pumpkin crop; and this will often be worth 
as much as ten to fifteen bushels of corn per acre. This crop is appropriate 
to the whole country; and will repay the attention given to it. Pumpkins 
are a good fattening food for cattle, sheep and hogs. They are a good food 
for pigs, serving to contract the heating effect of corn. They are easily 
kept from freezing, and may be fed m cold weather. They are cheaply 
gathered and stored, costing much less than any root crop, according to 
value. 

Tethering Cows. — The fence question has become very troublesome to 
solve in many parts of the country. There can be doubt that, with a herd 
of fifty to 100 head of cows, it costs more to fence pastures than it would to 
keep a herdsman to watch them. Where land is very valuable, the soiling 
system has been recommended in order to get a much larger production of 
cattle from an acre, and thus to get an adequate income from the land. 
But where land is cheap, and fencing expensive, the object is more to avoid 
the cost of the fence than to get the greatest possible income from the land. 
The grass is not expensive, for it grows on land perhaps worth $5 per acre, 
while it would cost $360 to put a fence around a forty-acre lot, or $110 more 
than the land is worth. Now the interest, on this fence, in most of the 
Western States, would be $36 per year, and the cost of keeping it in repair 
at least $15 more, making $51 per year for this fifty-acre field. It would 
pasture, say sixteen cows. 

Now, let us compare this with the Danish mode of pasturing their cows 
by tethering. A tether chain, 21 feet long, with a leather headstall, by 
which the chain is fastened to the cow, and an iron peg to drive into the 
ground, would cost about $1.50 per cow, or $24 for the sixteen cows; and if 
a five-eighth tarred rope, thirty feet long, were substituted for the chain, 
they would cost something less. Here is very little capital invested in re- 
straining the sixteen cows from doing damage. The cows are all pegged in 
a line, and, of course, they eat on a circle, and they are moved forward a 



LI VM STOCK. 93 

few feet at a time, so as to give only a narrow strip of grass at the end of 
their chain, and they stand principally on the ground eaten over, and can- 
not waste the grass by treading or lying upon it; it is, therefore, all fresh, 
and all eaten. This gain in food produced and eaten would amount to 
twenty-five per cent. When the cows had eaten across the field, they could 
be brought back to the other side, and repeat the process. These tethering 
pegs are removed and replaced for each cow in one minute. Cows treated 
in this way soon become very gentle and are easily handled by boys. The 
Danish women tether the cows and milk them. How much simpler, 
cheaper and more economical of iood this is than that of fencing and pas- 
turing. Where there is a stream running through the pasture, they may be 
tethered on each side of it, so as to obtain drink at will; and where the 
water is obtained from a well, they can be watered as easily as if they were 
kept in stall. 

Is not this Danish mode worthy of consideration in many parts of our 
country? It can be used to good advantage a portion of the time on mo9t 
farms. There is often a large after growth on parts of fields not fenced, 
and these pieces could be well utilized by tethering a few cows or other 
cattle upon them. A little reflection will find a frequent application of the 
tethering plan on a large proportion of our farms, both West and East. It 
seems the most economical substitute for soiling. 

Full Blood— Pure Blood— Thoroughbred. — Again and again we have 
been called upon to answer the question: " What is the difference, if any, 
between full-blood, pure-blood and thoroughbred, as applied to live stock ?" 
and as often we have answered, there is really no difference. All these 
terms are used to denote purity of blood. When applied to horses, the 
term thoroughbred, by common consent, has come to be recognized as the 
name of a peculiar breed— the English race-horse— and when we speak of a 
thoroughbred horse, it is understood that we refer to a purelybred ani- 
mal of that particular breed. There are, perhaps, purely-bred, or well- 
bred, or full-blood Clydesdales, English draft horses, Percheron-Normans, 
Shetland ponies, etc., but we never speak of them as thoroughbreds. In 
speaking of the various breeds of cattle we may say, a full-blood short- 
horn, a purely-bred short-horn, or a thoroughbred short-horn, all meaning 
one and the same thing; and so of all the other breeds of cattle, sheep and 
swine. In some localities an arbitrary distinction has been recognized be- 
tween thoroughbreds and full-bloods. Thus an animal showing a given 
number of crosses of a certain breed is classed as a full-blood, although it 
could not be recognized as a thoroughbred. But such distinctions are 
merely local, and are not generally recognized by breeders. — National Live 
Stock Journal. 

Watery Foods, Mot Pure Water, Affect tlie Quality of Milk— The 

following extracts show the results of investigations by Dr. Augustus Voel- 
cker, an English chemist, on this subject: 

" The direct supply of water to milch cows, according to my experience, 
does not affect the quality of the milk, at least, not to a very appreciable 
extent. You cannot, in other words, water the milk by giving the cows 
much water to drink. The case is different if washy or very succulent food 
—which is always very watery, often immature, and at the best poor or in- 
nutritious — is given to cows. In my judgment it is the poverty of the food, 
rather than the excess of water, which causes cows fed upon such food to 



94 LIVE STOCK. 

give watery milk. Again: if such food as brewers' grains, or silage, which 
is naturally sour, or barley, or oatmeal is mixed with water, and kept until 
the wash gets sour, such acid foods or wash greatly promote the flow of 
milk, and unless supplemented with concentrated food, have the effect of 
producing much, but watery milk. All the constituents— fat, caseine, milk, 
sugar, and ash — vary in cows' milk according to the breed of the cows, age, 
time elapsed since calving, and especially the quality of the food on which 
they are fed. The greatest variation occurs in the percentage of butter-fat. 
I have had milk sent to me for analysis which yielded twice, and even 
three times, as much butter-fat as other samples of an unquestionably un- 
skimmed, unadulterated milk. The proportions of solids not fat vary much 
less. Milk, and to the same extent also the relative proportions of caseine 
and milk sugar, vary in different samples of milk, but not in any great 
degree. As a rule, a milk which yields a high percentage of solids not fat 
also yields much fat. I have never found as little as 2.2 or 2.4 only of fat in 
milk containing 6.2 per cent, of solids not fat. If milk gives 8.7 of solids not 
fat, and only 2.4 per cent, of fat, in my opinion it is skimmed, but may be 
otherwise pure and not watered. As a matter of fact, the bulk of London 
milk has more or less of the cream taken off, especially in the strawberry 
season; and in my opinion the minimum standard of public analysis — 
namely, 2 1-2 percent, of fat and 8 1-2 solids not fat — might with propriety 
and with benefit be altered to 3 per cent, of fat and 8 per cent, of solids not 
fat. According to my large experience, genuine milk of fair quality, and by 
no means extra rich quality, such as is produced from well-fed Alderneys, 
seldom contains less than 3 per cent., and much more generally 31-2 to 
3 3-4 per cent, of fat throughout the greater part of the year. My opinion 
is, that a large proportion of milk sold in London and elsewhere, and pass- 
ing the public analysts' ordeal, is more or less skimmed." 

Milking Three Times a Day. — This is a pertinent question for dairy- 
men to put practically to the test, and then they may answer with authority. 
Some experiments have lately been made in France, and the report is, that 
the milk is more in quantity and richer in cream, and that the butter 
globules are more numerous. They state that cows will give from two to 
three quarts more per day, milking thrice than twice per day. Milking 
three times per day has been practiced in this country only when the cow 
yielded so largely that the udder could not properly contain the secretions 
of twelve hours. 

It is well w r orthy of careful experiments to determine what effect it may 
have upon cows that yield only moderate quantities of milk. We have 
tested it in a comparative way upon cows that gave but a small quantity of 
milk in winter, once per day; and then in early spring, on milking twice per 
day, found an almost immediate increase, without any other apparent 
cause, the feed being the same. It requires accurate experiments before 
anything can be definitely asserted on the question. 

How to Take off a Hide. _In taking off abide or calfskin never cut 
the throat crosswise in the least. Slit the skin from the brisket to the tail, 
and from the brisket to jaw; then cut around each leg to the hoof. Slit the 
hind leg from the hoof up directly over the gambrel, and the forward legs 
in the front, directly over the knee, to the top of the brisket bone. This 
leaves the hide or skin, then, in the proper shape for finishing. 

Skin the head and legs carefully to avoid cutting them; then, com- 



LI VE STOCK. 95 

mencing at the head, draw or fist off the skin without any further use of the 
knife, thereby avoiding the holes and cuts that almost spoil so many calf- 
skins. Some farmers use a windlass to draw off the dairy skins, and others 
use a horse; but one or two men can do it a great deal more quickly and 
easily. 

When taken off, lay the hide or skin flat on the floor in a cool place where 
the sun cannot shine upon it, and cover it with salt, rather fine salt being 
better than too coarse salt. Do not roll it up, but let it remain in the salt 
until you take off another; then place that one upon the other, salting freely 
as before, and so on until you get enough to make quite a pile; then com- 
mence another pile in the same manner. Do not be afraid to use salt freely; 
what the skins do not require will shake off and can be used again. 

If you prefer to dry out your skins before selling them be sure that they 
are thoroughly cured with salt before drying them, and then that they are 
thoroughly dried before being baled up for shipment. 

Never dry out a skin without having it salted as described, to preserve 
it from moths and other injuries on the hair side which are liable to occur 
if the skins are not properly salted before being dried out. 

If your skins remain on hand very long after being dried out, before de- 
livery to the tanner, even if salted, watch them carefully to detect any 
indications of moths or worms on the hair side, and if any are discovered 
have the skins vigorously whipped with a stick so often that they shall be 
wholly eradicated from the entire lot of skins, as they often work serious 
injury in a very short time. 

Assistance at Birth. — A little knowledge of veterinary obstetrics is 
often of very great value to the farmer. Cases of wrong presentation oc- 
casionally occur on almost every farm, and sometimes cause serious loss, 
when a very little timely assistance would have removed the whole diffi- 
culty. The natural presentation is that of the forefeet, with the head lying 
upon them, the belly being downward. When this presentation occurs 
there is very seldom any need of assistance, the chief exceptions being in 
case of extreme debility of the dam, or of dropsical swellings about the 
head or abdomen of the foetus. Sometimes, however, but one forefoot is 
presented, the other being doubled back under the belly. In this case the 
foetus must be gently pushed back; and the foot drawn carefully outward. 
A more difficult case occurs when the head is turned backward. In this 
case endeavor to slip a noose around the lower jaw, then push the body of 
the foetus backward and draw the head forward. 

Presentation of the hind feet occasionally occurs, and cannot be con- 
sidered as abnormal, although assistance is more often needed here than 
when the forefeet come first. If both hind feet are presented, all that is 
needed is to pull gently when the pains occur. 

In general it is the best to refrain from meddling, unless there is clear 
evidence of a wrong presentation, or several hours unsuccessful labor have 
shown that all is not right. Before attempting to render assistance, the 
hand and arm should be thoroughly greased, and gently introduced suffi- 
ciently to ascertain just where the difficulty lies. Then, in giving assist- 
ance, avoid all rough usage, pulling only when the pains occur. 

The afterbirth need not be disturbed for twenty-four hours. If it is not 
naturally removed within that time, assistance should be given, by greasing 
the right hand and arm, and with it loosening the " buttons " which attach 
the membranes, while the left hand gently pulls, with a twisting motion. 



96 LIVE STOCK. 

Fall Calves. — If the farmer Las warm and comfortable stabling for his 
stock, he will certainly find that fall calves can be raised more cheaply and 
with less risk than those dropped at any other time. We to k occasion to 
urge this idea in these columns some two years ago. Since then we have 
beeu forced, by circumstances, to raise a good many calves at other seasons; 
and we have become more than ever convinced that the ideas then ad- 
vanced were correct. We prefer calves dropped in September to any other 
month, for the very good reason that calves then escape the intense heat of 
summer, and during the winter season they can be " pushed " with grain, 
and ia the spring are ready for the young grass as soon as it appears. The 
professional breeder likes fall calves, too, but for the additional reason that 
they " show " at the September fairs as " calves,'' when, in reality, they are 
only a few days short of a year old, as " yearlings," when they are really 
close to two years old. It would seem that there are tricks even in the 
farmer's trade. — Prof. Shellon, in the Industrialist. 

Lessons in Meal Feeding — Experiments have shown that corn ground, 
cob and all, will cause cows to give more and better milk than clear corn 
meal. The reason for this is, no doubt, owing to the fact that when cows 
eat clear corn meal a considerable portion is voided without digestion; 
while in the case of the corn-and-cob meal it is all digested except the cob. 
Part of this, however, makes nutriment, as chemists tell us there is about 
five per cent, of nutriment in cob meal. The same bulk of clear corn meal 
would make more milk and butter if it was all digested, but it rarely ever 
is, unless fed with chaff or with cut food. The trouble should always be 
taken to feed meal in this way and it will pay a farmer to save his chaff to 
mix with the meal, rather than to feed it out by itself, as most farmers still 
do. W r hat a world of waste there has been in feeding meal by itself, when 
with so little trouble it could all have been saved. Here is a lesson farmers 
can learn and practice to a great advantage. It will pay to erect a room or 
storage place in which to keep the chaff for a winter's feeding. — Our Coun- 
try Home. 

More Humanity. — It is tough on a cow to compel her to have her calf 
with her head fast in the stanchions. The risk is run of her injuring her- 
self, and then the worry she undergoes about her calf is most depleting in 
strength and profit, and the excitement of the other cows in the stable is 
also a great harm. These are the mercenary reasons why such a thing 
should never be allowed; but above them ail is the humanitarian side, 
which ought to strike every man on his best side and make him carefully 
mindful of the physical comfort and feelings of his cows and the little, help- , 
less calves. 

The place for a cow to have her calf is in a box stall with plenty of bed- 
ding. Here she can give full scope to her motherly interests, and the sur- 
roundings are calculated to allay her feverish and excited condition. It 
must take some days for a cow to recover from the damage of giving birth 
to a calf in the cramped and straining position of the barbarous stanchions. 
— Our Country Home. 

Cleanliness In Milking. — " The cow's udder should always be washed 
or sponged off before milking, so that no impurities can enter the milk." 
So says an exchange, but we do not endorse the above as practicable. If 
the washing was sure to be most thoroughly done, and as thoroughly dried 
afterwards, this style of treatment might do. But suppose a large number 



LIVE STOCK. 97 

of cows are to be milked on a cold winter morning, long before sunrise, and 
the above advice is attempted to be carried out. We hold up our hands in 
horror and say no, not if the milking is to be accomplished within a reason- 
able time, and with any ordinary force of men. Our chief objection to any 
such procedure is the fact that unless the operation is done most thoroughly, 
impurities are more likely than ever to enter the milk; perhaps not in the 
form of solids, but, worse yet, in liquid form. Keep the stables well lit- 
tered, and when the milker sits down to his task, have him rub the bag off 
well with dry straw or a stiff brush, then milk quickly and strain immedi- 
ately before proceeding to another cow. If this practice is carefully fol- 
lowed, no impurities need ever enter the milk. But Jiever, we repeat, at- 
tempt to wash with water the cow's udder, unless the animal is indeed in a 
filthy condition, and if done, do not attempt to milk her until the udder is 
thoroughly dried. 

To Dry Off a Cot*-. — Safely and effectually to dry a cow you must regu- 
late her food, restricting her mainly to dry food, and withholding roots, 
linseed, and such other articles. Have her milked at increasingly long in- 
tervals, first once a day and then once in two days. Drying may be has- 
tened by giving a vigorous, healthy animal a dose of physic. Administra- 
tion of alum and belladonna exerts considerable effect in arresting lacteal 
secretion. Vinegar or other applications to the udder are of little effect; 
and no medicine, whether used internally or externally, is as safe and effec- 
tual as regulated diet. 

Why Salt Stock? — Every farmer is accustomed to salt his cattle, but 
not every one knows why he does it, unless it is because the stock like it. 
But a moment's thought will show where the advantage lies. As soon as 
food enters the stomach, the natural tendency is at once for fermentation to 
begin, and there arises a contest between this tendency aud the digestive 
powers. And if these powers are vigorous and the process of fermentation 
is checked or intercepted, then no bad results will follow, the food will be 
digested, and salt will not be needed, though at any time this will assist in 
the process of digestion. Salt keeps food from decaying until it can be di- 
gested and assimilated, and prolongs the time to allow the digestive organs 
to complete their work, and if food is taken in excess, as often happens 
when stock is in pasture, salt given frequently will be of much advantage. 
And further, salt is a preventive of worms. When fermentation sets in, the 
conditions presented are favorable to the existence of worms in the intes- 
tinal canals, and may possibly be engendered by the process. Consequent- 
ly it should be a rule with stockmen to keep salt before their cattle or with- 
in reach when they need it, and the cattle will obey the demands of nature 
and supply the want as needed. 

Keep tlie Cows Clean. — If the cows have their flanks lined with ma- 
nure, as too many of them often have, you should select a warm day and 
secure a few pailfuls of hot water to carry to the barn and wash off those 
flanks. Soak the manure well, using a sponge or rag, before you proceed 
to scrape it off or all the hair will come with it. Remember that the first 
point to be attained in securing a good yield of milk from a cow is to make 
her comfortable. This can never be done so long as she is compelled to 
carry a large weight ot manure on her flanks, and then it looks so abomina- 
bly. No one would ever buy milk coming from such an animal if they 
knew it. 



98 



LIVE STOCK. 



A Good Pig Sty— We furnish herewith a plan for a good pig 8 ty } with 
a detailed description showing the hest manner of constructing the same. 
Our illustration represents the ground floor, 25 feet wide by 32 feet long. 
A is an entry five feet wide, running the whole length of the building, 
with a door at each end; it is used for feeding, as the troughs in boxes b, b, 
b, b, run along one side of it. The roof extends only over the entry (a) 
and the boxes b, b, b, b. The boxes c, c, c, c, are not under the roof. The 
whole building is floored with plank, with a slight depression in grade 
toward the front of about half an inch to the foot, for the purpose of drain- 
age. The inside partitions need not be more than four feet high. Tho 
small door between b and c is hung by hinges from the top, so as to open 
either way, made to work easy, not reaching quite to the floor. The pig 
soon learns to push it open and pass through, and the door closes after it. 
When pigs are put into the boxes, one corner of the box floor (C) should 
be made wet, and the pigs will be careful to not wet anywhere else. 0, o, 
o, o, are feeding troughs. The height of the building should be seven or 

eight feet. No bedding is 
required. Keep the floor 
clean. 

Butchering Time. — 
Do not make the hogs too 
fat. Lard is not good 
meat. 

Boiling "water is a little 
too hot for scalding hogs — 
wait a moment. 

Knock the hogs on the 
head before sticking. This 
for humanity's sake. 

Take care that the dead 
hogs do not freeze before 
cutting up. If they do the sausage will not be so good, and the pickle meat 
will not " take salt " well and will be found difficult to keep, 

Have the sausage meat cut very fine. If you use a grinder run it 
through twice— a chopper is better. Use the finest dairy salt and pure 
pepper. You will be cheated in pepper if you don't look sharp. 

One pound of salt, six ounces of black pepper, and a teaspoonful of red 
pepper to fifty-five pounds of meat is our recipe for seasoning, and we stand 
by it. We don't mention sage nor any other " yarbs " because not every- 
one likes them; and even for those who do, the sausage will become 
" strong " after awhile, if they are mixed through it. 

Don't " stuff" sausage: it is not appetizing, and can be kept better with- 
out it. Here's the way: Pack what is wanted for winter use in common 
stone milk crocks, and run two inches of hot lard over it. That which you 
want to keep for next summer is best canned, just like tomatoes. Make 
into small cakes and cook about two-thirds enough for the table, or enough 
to cook all the water out, then pack the cakes in the cans, fill them full of 
hot lard, and seal at once. We have kept it two years in that way, and had 
it come out in perfect condition. 

On most farms a beef is killed at the annual " butchering," and how 
beet to keep it until it can be eaten is often a puzzling question. Try this 
plan and tell us how you like it: Cut in small pieces, leaving out the small 



i r 
c 


c 

I 1 


c 


C 


i 


•b 


"b 


I 


o 


o 


o 


o 


- 


e 


L 


- 



A GOOD PIG STY. 



LIVE STOCK. 



99 



bones, and pack in a large stone jar with a weight on top. (A stone jar is 
the nicest vessel for this, and if one won't hold enough get two or three.) 
Make a pickle in the proportions of two gallons of water, two pounds of salt 
(three pounds may he used, though we prefer two), one ounce of saltpetre, 
one pound of sugar, and two large spoonfuls of baking powder. Boil, skira, 
and pour on hot. After two weeks, take out and wash the meat, heat and 
skim the brine, and this time let it get cold before pouring over. 

Lay the hams to be cured on a slanting board and rub with fine salt. 
Let them lay forty-eight hours, then wipe off the salt with a dry towel, and 
to each ham take a teaspoonfnl of powdered saltpetre and a dessertspoonful 
of coarse brown sugar and red pepper rubbed well into the fleshy parts. 
Then pack in a tub, skins down, sprinkle between each layer with fine salt. 
In five days cover them with pickle made as follows: 

To one gallon of water take one and one-half pounds of coarse salt, one- 
quarter to one ounce of saltpetre, and one-quarter to one-half pound brown 
sugar. Let them lay five, 

six, or seven weeks accord- ^ p\ (g» fl 

ing to size; beef, either ten 
days or two weeks. Hang 
them up several days before 
smoking. The pickle should 
be boiled and skimmed and 
poured over the meat while 
hot. 

A Handy Contrivance 
for Hanging up Hogs. — 

This ingenious contrivance, 

an illustration of which we 

give upon this page, is very 

simply constructed as follows: 

Erect a strong post about 8 

or 9 feet high, and attach to 

it four stationary arms, as 

shown in cut. The post 

should extend about 2 feet 

above the arms, and at its 

top an iron pin 1 1-2 inches in 

diameter should be driven in. The tackle consists of a piece of 3x4 inch 

white oak scantling, with a pulley-wheel in one end, long enough so that 

when placed on top of the post, the end with the pulley- wheel will extend 

out 4 or 5 inches farther than the arms. The rope is first fastened in the 

scantling back from the pulley-wheel, then through the movable pulley, 

then through the pulley-wheel in the scantling, and drops to the ground to 

lift with. The back end of the scantling is fastened to the arm below by 

means of a rope, tied just the right length, and can be shifted from one arm 

to another as needed. The hook on the movable pulley is hooked on to the 

gambrel when the hog is elevated to the arnl, and the pulley is then turned 

to the next arm, and so on. 




CONTRIVANCE FOR HANGING UP HOGS. 



When to Peed Corn for Fattening Hogs. —This question has been 
asked and answered many times, with varying results, according to the breed, 
and the care and attention, the shelter, time of year, etc. Store hogs in a 






100 



LIVE STOCK. 




HOG HOUSE.— ELEVATION. 



healthy condition and of good breed should lay on a pound of additional 
weight for every five and six-tenth pounds of merchantable corn fed to 
them, and will do it on the average, with reasonable care; When they do 
not do it we thiuk there is a defect somewhere. 

If the above statement, which in our experience we have verified, be 
true, one bushel of corn— a part meal and fed as slop, and a part all the 
animal will eat in the ear or shelled, changed frequently—should make ten 

pounds addition to the 
weight. Ten bushels of 
corn will then represent 100 
pounds of pork. 

The following conclusion 
is then reached: It pays 
when corn is worth 30 cents 
per bushel to convert it into 
pork when it sells ior $3 per 
100 pounds, as the manure 
will abundantly pay for the 
care when properly saved. 
So when the corn is 40 cents, 
pork should sell at $4 per 
100 pounds; corn at 50 cents, pork $5; GO cents, pork $6; corn 75 cents, pork 
should sell at $7.50. When corn is worth $1.50, pork must sell at $15 per 
100 pounds. If the pork sells for less than is thus represented by the cor- 
responding price of corn, is it fed at a loss ? if more, the advance is profit — 
in each case regarding the manure as pay for the trouble. 

Fattening is accomplished more profitably as the cool weather of autumn 
advances, the animals having plenty of water or mud in which to roll when 
they choose with good shelter and warm 
quarters in which to lie. The feeding place 
should be kept clean, and corn in the ear or 
shelled, fed night and morning, as much as 
they will eat up clean, and slop or meal at 
noon, with pure clean water night and morn- 
in \ The fatter they become the closer their 
quarters may be. In the early stages of fat- 
tening they used room for exercise, with 
wheat bran, charcoal and sulphur occasion- 
ally, to keep them in condition and increase 
the bone and muscle, for when quite heavy 
they need only rest. — Prairie Farmer. 

Plan of a Hog-House. — We present here- 
with a perspective plan of a very good piggery, 
which may be easily modified at will or to 
suit circumstances. In the engraving of the ground plan, A, A are 
bedrooms, or divisions; P>, 15, B, feeding pens; C, cooking-room, with 
boiler, and stairs to the store-room for feed above. This store-room may 
be connected with the cooking-room by a spout and cut-off, by which the 
food can be conducted directly into the boiler below, or into baskets or 
bags at will. I), J) arc the troughs. It will be seen that the plan involves 
the Lighting of the entire building thoroughly by means of sliding windows, 
for it is one of the gravest mistakes that hogs thrive better in the dark than 




HOG HOUSE — GROUND PLAN. 






LI YE STOCK. 101 

in the light. A hog-pen should be kept as clean, be as thoroughly venti- 
lated, and as well lighted as is practicable. The sub-divisions of the pen 
can, of course, be modified according to necessity. A good stone or brick 
foundation should support it, and the floor of the pen should be double and 
close. They should be so littered with absorbents as to deodorize them. 

Driving Hogs. — Perhaps there is no other animal so contrary as a hog 
10 drive or manage, yet it can be done with perfect ease and success. In 
my younger days I had the usual trouble with them which most farmers 
have experienced. On one occasion I had repeatedly tried to drive an old 
hog to a neighbor's, and it was necessary to cross two bridges, about fifteen 
rods apart, to reach my destination. She drove peaceably to the first 
bridge, when she turned, with a grunt, passed me and my helpers, and 
soon reached home. Repeated efforts resulted similarly, and the hog was 
mistress of the situation. I sat down to rest and wipe away the perspira- 
tion, telling the boys to go home and I would drive her alone after I got 
rested, or I would give up that a hog was more than a match for me. I 
rested and thought, and thought and rested for two or three hours, reject- 
ing several plans for outwitting her, when at last basket came into my head. 
Said I to myself, •■ I have got you now, you old brute! ' and I made another 
effort. 

This time, when she turned at the bridge, she jammed her head into the 
basket. She commenced backing up. I followed as fast as she backed, 
until I had backed her to and across the second bridge, when I withdrew 
the basket, and she found herself a stranger in a strange place. She tried 
it but once more that day, with the same result. 

Since then I have had no trouble driving hogs, or with cross hogs in 
butchering time, or in taking young pigs from their mothers. A good, 
strong bushel basket in dexterous hands will baffle the most savage hog, 
and I presume a wild boar would make but few attempts to master a man if 
he was caught head first in a basket, for at that instant he begins to retreat 
backward, and would not be apt to charge many times. 

On one butchering day a rather lean porker strayed into a distant field, 
and the help sent for him returned with the report that they had been 
driven from the field, and that my life would be in danger if I went after 
him. I took my basket, and when nearing the infuriated animal he made a 
furious charge. I dodged the first one, and when he turned I caught his 
head in the basket; when 1 released him he made another attack, with like 
results. He made one more feeble effort before he was butchered, but 
from that day to this, now over twenty years, I have never been outwitted 
or beaten by a hog. 

I have never seen this receipt in print, but think it too valuable to re- 
main any longer hidden under a bushel. — Cor a Farm and Fireside. 

How to Administer Medicine to Swine. —If the medicine cannot be 
given in his food, as when he has no appetite, or is in great pain, it must be 
administered direct. To do this is quite difficult, and most farmers give it 
up, or adopt the homeopathic treatment, because it is so much easier. 
When properly managed it is not very hard either for the pig or the attend- 
ant. The pig is caught by a slip noose in a strong rope, which goes through 
the mouth, and holds back of the tusks. He will pull back with all his 
might, and the rope must be made fast quite short to the top of a post or 
fence. Then his legs are secured so he cannot spring forward. Now, if an 



102 LIVE STOCK. 



an old shoe with a hole in the toe is given to him to chew upon, he will 
champ away upon it as angrily as possible, and the medicine can be poured 
into his mouth through it — a little at a time, or he will choke, and strangle, 
and cough. Another way is to hold the pig in the same way, or as for ring- 
ing, and to pour the medicine into one nostril through an oil can, such as is 
used for oiling machinery. Either of these methods render it possible to 
give medicine to a pig as effectually as to any animal, and it is not probable 
that his rage will have any evil effect, as in the case of a struggling child.— 
American Agriculturist. 

How to Prevent Hogs Becoming Diseased. — The causes of diseases 
among swine, and the best remedies, are unsolved problems in the estima- 
tion even of multitudes who have reared hogs for a quarter of a century. 

But a majority ot our people will continue to try experiments. Nearly 
every man of large experience in fattening this class of stock, who has not 
a favorite medicine of his own, will try every remedy proposed by any man 
professing to be a veterinary surgeon. This is not surprising when we read 
in many of our papers that during 1878, twenty-five per cent, of the hog crop 
that year was lost by hog cholera. 

So far as we can learn by careful inquiry there is at present but little of 
this disease prevailing. Will the readers, therefore, allow us to give all 
who either rear or fatten swine a little simple advice ? It may not do them 
or their animals much good, but it will do them no harm, and it may be of 
great value to their young stock. At all events, the trial will not be expen- 
sive. As a postulate, we affirm the trite old aphorism: " An ouuce of pre- 
ventive is better than a pound of cure." 

Keep your hogs in good clean fields; give them access to pure water — 
even though you should be compelled to dig a deep well for that purpose; 
a good pump and plenty of suitable troughs, cleansed every week, will cost 
but little and will always prove a valuable outlay. Provide, also, in the 
dryest part of the field a good shelter, both from sun and rain. A few rails 
properly arranged two or three feet from the ground, covered with a stack 
of straw, or coarse prairie grass, will be an attractive place for the entire 
drove. 

In troughs, near by their resting-places, two or three times each week, 
place a composition of salt, soda, red pepper, and ginger. To four parts of 
the first two articles add one part of the latter. Our common red peppers 
will do very well; they should, however, be well pulverized, and all the in- 
gredients thoroughly mixed. Most healthy animals will readily devour 
salt. To obtain it they will also take the alkali and the stimulant. The 
compound will not injure bird, beast, fish or man. It is not offered as a 
patent remedy, but simply as a preventive of the injurious effects of the 
foul gases and pestiferous filth in which hogs have been allowed to wallow. 
Continue their usual summer feed, whether clover, bran, meal or corn.— 
Drovers' Journal. 

Poland-China Swine— The Poland China is a breed of pigs of exceed- 
ing composite pedigree— using that term in its application to the breed, and 
not to individuals, which of lato have each their own complete pedigrees, 
running back through several generations of careful breeding. We do not 
need to inquire into the history of the origin of the breed to recognize it as 
one of great value. It is regarded by a great number of the best and largest 
swine raisers of America as the very best pork-making machine in the coun- 









LI YE STOCK. 103 

try, and by all who know much about pigs, as the best of the many dis- 
tinctively American breeds. Any one can see, by its general form, color 
and markings, that the Berkshire breed has contributed largely to its 
formation, and the butchers know very well that in the quality of its flesh it 
closely approaches that of that admirable English breed. The qualities 
which especially recommend it to the American pig raisers, are its hardi- 
ness, rapidity of growth, large size, and the favor with which it is regarded 
by buyers, pork-packers, and others. It has excellent hams and shoulders, 
and very little offal. Its bones are small. It is a prolific breeder, kindly 
and docile in large or small herds, though particularly adapted to the 
former. It is fit for slaughter at any age, and at six months old ought to 
weigh two hundred pounds or over. At a year old, three hundred and 
fifty pound pigs are not rare, and at eighteen months to two years old, not 
a few turn the scale at five hundred to six hundred pounds. The color, 
which is black, or nearly so, with some white in flecks or spots upon the 
body, and assuredly with white face and feet, adapts it to our hot summers, 
and fits it for the great western and middle pork-raising belt of the country. 
— American Agriculturist. 

Berkshire Pigs. — Heber Humfrey, secretary of the British Berkshire 
Society, claims for the Berkshires the first company among pigs in England 
and abroad. While he makes no definite claim to an ancient British or a 
Norman descent, and doubts if the necessary data is in existence for any- 
thing like a reliable history of the breeding and progress of the Berkshires 
previous to the last century, yet he believes a race of Berkshires was pro- 
duced many years ago, fitting ancestors of the pedigree herds of the pres- 
ent day. Previous to the advent of railways into the county of Berks, in 
England, there existed a system of raising a supply of pork and bacon for 
the London market, which from its extent and organization might well have 
been the growth of centuries. The elevated districts of the country were 
very thickly wooded, the character of the arable land was suited to the 
growth of barley as a main crop, so with the acorns, beech-masts and refuse 
grain it would bespeak a natural home for a hardy and thrifty race of swine. 
Here, from time immemorial, they seem to have been raised in consider- 
able numbers. The autumn-bred pigs, after stubbing, were usually win- 
tered in the straw yards and sent to market in the spring, followed by the 
spring and summer stock. 

Mr. Humfrey believes that the Chinese and Neapolitan breeds had 
scarcely a feature in common with the pure Berkshires, and that they were 
never used in any of the herds of olden times which were carefully bred. 
Ho believes that the history of the Berkshires is not one of crossing and re- 
crossing, the one to qualify the other, but just one steady record of progress 
and improvement within their own lives. 

The change in the taste of the British consumer during the last ten 
years has made thick, fat bacon more or less unsalable. Here the Berk- 
shires are all that is required. Again they are hardy and healthy and have 
good, uniform appetites. In common with other animals, they resent sud- 
den changes in their dietary, and at the weaning time especially they will 
repay extra care and attention. 

It is not the question of expense so much as of time and trouble to give 
the pigs a little digestible food often from the first day they will eat any. It 
is surprising how much help such a feed is both to the mother and the pigs. 
Far too often it is thought that a good mother is doing the pigs well and 



104 LIVE STOCK. 

nothing more is necessary. The unfortunate effects of such a theory are 
never fully known until every pig receiving such treatment has reached ma- 
turity. The difficulty comes about in this way : The quantity of milk the 
little pigs get from their mothers at each meal is very trifling. It is ex- 
ceedingly rich and taken often. If this goes on many weeks and no more 
bulky food is given, their whole system settles down to a state of things 
which cannot last, so that when they have some day almost suddenly to 
rely on food of perhaps ten times the bulk there is literally not room for 
them, with two or three meals a day, to stow away sufficiently to carry 
them on in good condition. 

Such concentrated food prevents the natural and uniform distension of 
the intestines, and the consequences are serious. Quite a percentage of 
the little pigs cannot push through under such conditions. Others eat and 
drink and grow, and to all appearances are healthy and salable. But the 
lungs and liver, as well as the bowels, have undergone such a strain, 
through the sudden change in food that the chances are many of the pigs 
would have weak parts about them. 

Always excepting weakly constitutions, brought about through unsatis- 
factory breeding, Mr. Humfrey thinks that unfair Aveaning brings more 
pigs into difficulties than any other cause. It is always going on to 
a small extent, and the after effects are often attributed to other 
causes. It happens oftener through an oversight than any other way, 
but it is weil that attention should be directed to this important mat- 
ter. 

Care and Management of Hogs—Mr. A. J. White, of Dallas County, 
la., in speaking of his methods, found the following, after many years' ex- 
perience, the best : " I first select some of the best sows I have, those with 
good constitution, good length and good bone. I prefer old sows or such 
as have come to maturity. I then select a fully matured boar, and one as 
good as I can get ; then I am sure of strong pigs that will make fully one- 
quarter larger hogs at the same age than those from younger sows and 
boars, where the strength that should go to the pigs while the sow is in 
pregnancy is used to supply the growth of the young swine. Those who 
breed from unmatured stock and keep selecting breeding stock from such 
soon run their stock out. If I breed from young sows, I use an old boar. 
I never have them farrow until after a year old, by which time they are 
nearly developed. My mode of feeding is this : I never feed much corn to 
young hogs, but give them oats, bran, shorts and milk until cold weather 
sets in, when I feed corn at night and oats in the morning. I always feed 
my sows oats and bran for three or four weeks before farrowing. Corn is 
heating and binding, and I find that sows fed on corn alone do not deliver 
their pigs as easily as those fed on oats and slop. I always have my pigs 
drop the last of March or first of April. I feed them as I have stated until 
the first of the next April, then I put them up to fatten, and crowd them 
until June, when they are sold while fatting. I feed mostly corn-feed in 
some form and oats once or twice a week for a change and sometimes bran 
wet with boiling water. This keeps their bowels open and gives that change 
of diet needed by all stock. I have never lost any hogs with cholera, yet 
if the disease is around, I give each about one tablespoonful of kerosene oil 
three times a week in swill. I always throw my wood ashes in piles where 
the hogs can get at them, and I throw salt on the ashes twice a week." — Our 
Country Home. 



LIVE STOCK. 105 

Dirt Floors for Hogs.^If a good dry clay bed cannot be secured at all 
times, better retain the plank floor. But the clay bed is best, and if it can 
be of about the quality of dirt which will make good brick it is better than 
black soil, and if it is inclined to reddishness so much the better, as then 
there is an assurance that it contains the muriate of iron, which is healthy 
for hogs, applied outwardly or inwardly. Bennett says : It is one thing to 
read how a thing works and another thing to see it. We have noticed arti- 
cles from such men as Clarkson and Brown saying that a dirt bottom is the 
best floor to the sleeping place for hogs if it is furnished with a roof and 
hogs allowed plenty of liberty. We suppose these men must know what 
they are talking about, but our faith was about 50 per cent, doubt as to its 
working satisfactorily except in favored soils. But this fall we tried it. 
We left some thirty hogs in the pasture and fixed things so they could run 
under a cow shed to sleep. The result was that the ground was always dry 
and dusty under the shed, rainy weather and all, and not a particle of filth 
to be seen. We never had hogs do so well before nor enjoy their surround- 
ings better, and we have noticed the difference in other cases where farmers 
have bedded their hogs on floor, the floor and bedding being damp and foul 
in rainy weather and the hogs chilled and rough coated. Provided that a 
space of eight or ten rods is put between the feeding place and sleeping 
place of hogs they will prove themselves the cleanest domestic animals we 
have, and the dirt floor surprises us entirely in its suitableness as a bed. 

Green Food for Pigs.— Prof. S. R. Thompson, of the Nebraska Agri- 
cultural College, writes to the American Agriculturist that green food 
makes thriftier and larger hogs. Farmers who raise many pigs and feed 
them exclusively on Indian corn know that some of the shotes will cease to 
grow at an early age, begin to lay on fat, and never reach the size of good, 
merchantable hogs. This tendency to fatten prematurely, at the expense 
of bone growth, is not seen to any great extent in grass-fed hogs. A pig fed 
on bulky green food will develop a larger stomach than one fed on concen- 
trated food, like corn ; and when you come to fatten it this enlarged capacity 
will enable him to eat and digest more corn, and thus fatten faster than the 
other, and be a more profitable hog to grow for market. Grass fed hogs 
are healthier than those grain-fed. Every intelligent breeder knows the 
advantages of feeding green food to sows about to farrow. They have less 
difficulty with their pigs, are less liable to destroy them, will give more 
milk, and nurse them better. Grass-fed hogs are less liable to disease. 
The dreaded hog cholera is not much to be feared where hogs have the run 
of a good clover pasture. Undoubtedly, if exposed to contagion, they 
would take the disease, but they are not likely to develop it. For example, 
a farmer had his hogs in a small pen, destitute of grass, with no water ex- 
cept a muddy pool, which soon was made as vile as possible by the hogs. 
After a while the hogs began to die in considerable numbers, with symp- 
toms resembling cholera. The owner was alarmed, took them out of his 
pen, turned them on a patch of green rye, and gave them water from a well. 
The disease was checked and the deaths ceased. 

The silo will yet come to be regarded as essential to his business by the 
pork raiser, furnishing, as it will, the succulent food essential to the health 
of swine when green food is not otherwise obtainable. 

A Sensible Method._We noticed a farmer, a few days ago, loading two 
large brood sows in a wagon. He had no shute, and they had to be lifted 






106 LIVE STOCK. 



in by main force. The yard was full of other sows with young litters. And 
yet with some help he did it without a squeal or the least excitement in the 
yard. An ordinary man would have caught them and lifted them in, and 
every mother would have been excited, and perhaps a half dozen sucklings 
trampled to death in the melee. Instead he coaxed them into a box-stall, 
then placed a large crate in the door, to which they went readily, and then 
lifted the crate with some help, and emptied them into the wagon, where 
they lay down as quiet and contented as if under their favorite tree in the 
pasture. — Iowa Homestead. 

Raising Sheep. — I would like to impress upon the minds of the peo- 
ple, through the columns of your much prized paper, the benefit there is in 
raising sheep. They should always in winter time have a well-covered 
shelter to stay under when the cold rains are falling and freezing, and they 
should have plenty to eat. They ought not to be allowed to expose them- 
selves in bad weather, for that is very injurious to them. They ought to 
have almost as strict attention as people, when the lambs are young es- 
pecially, then by close attention as they grow up, and gentle handling, you 
will most always have fine, large, healthy sheep. They ought not to be 
sheared but once in twelve months, unless you take particular care to see 
they are kept out of the cold rain and sleets. Just think of the clear 
money you can make on them. The wool brings forty and fifty cents most 
any time, and a good sheep will bear four pounds of the wool easy enough. 
So you can count on $1.60 to $2.90 a head for the wool every time, if you 
sell it, and it will sell most any time ; and if you want to sell off your 
sheep at any time, you can get $2.50 a head and upwards. They are easy 
raised, not much trouble to handle, and it don't take much feed for them. 
I would advise farmers to go at it lively and see the money they can coin 
at it. Just think how easy you can commence with a few head and soon in- 
crease to one hundred, which at even $2.00 brings $200 ; and think of the 
good, warm clothes you can have in the winter by getting a loom and mak- 
ing cloth.— Ex. 

Shropshires and Hampshires. — The Shropshires and Hampshire- 
downs are two essentially modern breeds of English sheep. The desire 
to improve all kinds of live stock took possession of progressive English 
farmers during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The Wiltshire 
sheep were a hardy, horned, white-faced breed, which, when crossed with 
the improved hornless, dark-faced, well-bred Southdown, became a profit- 
able market breed, especially for raising early lambs, and their wool was 
also greatly improved. The cross, with a dash of Cotswold or Leicester 
blood, is the foundation of the Hampshire-downs. They had been bred for 
black or dark faces and legs, which were Southdown characteristics, but 
when Southdown breeders found the Hampshires competing with them in 
the market, and successfully, from their large size, they changed, in a 
measure, the fashion of color in their legs and faces, now-a-days prefering 
the grizzly-brown, rather than very dark. The Hampshires are larger, 
coarser and not so well-formed as the Southdowns, and their wool is longer 
and coarser, doubtless from the long wool cross. They mature early, and 
are hardy and profitable. It takes a good judge to tell the difference in 
the quality of mutton, but the smaller Southdowns make the best. 

The Shropshires were produced in a similar way, from the old Morf- 
comninn breed, but contain more long wool blood. In size, they are fully 



LIVE STOCK. 107 

equal if not superior to the Hampskires, and are their equals in easy fat- 
tening, early maturity of lambs, and profitable fleeces, the wool being fine, 
though of longer staple and more glossy than the true Downs. This breed 
seems now to be well established, and rapidly gaining in popularity. It has 
spotted or graying face and legs, with a carcass somewhat resembling the 
long wools. 

How to Dress a Sheep. — Gen. Cassius M. Clay has written an interest- 
ing article on breeding and management of sheep, in course of which he 
gives directions how to slaughter and dress a sheep so as to wholly prevent 
the rank odor and flavor so often attached to mutton. 

First, he withholds all food from the animal for full twenty-four hours 
or more before slaughtering, but gives in the meantime all the water it will 
consume. When ready to slaughter, he has all things in readiness, in order 
that the job may be accomplished in the shortest time possible, when the 
sheep is hung by the hind legs, and the throat quickly cut, severing all the 
main arteries at once, and the moment life is extinct the work of disem- 
bowelling is accomplished, and the skin taken off in the shortest time pos- 
sible. The result is meat of the most delicious flavor, without a taint of 
the rank, offensive odor and equally offensive flavor, so often accompanying 
meats of this kind. 

He never selects a lamb for delicate meat, but always chooses a full- 
grown sheep, from two to three years old. 

Merino Sheep. — I will give you my reasons for preferring Merino sheep. 
I have been keeping from 75 to 150 for over nine years; in that time I have 
not lost one by disease, nor more than five or six by accident. This year 
one of my neighbors had a dog that bit off the ears from two, which I 
killed to put out of paiu, and the owner killed the dog. 

In winter I feed them on hay, straw and corn fodder. After the ewes 
drop their lambs I give the ewes turnips and sugar beets, cut up and 
sprinkled with wheat bran, corn chop, and occasionally oil-cake meal, with 
rock salt and water to go at pleasure, being careful to change feed as often 
as possible. When the lambs are two months old I have a hole in the pen 
large enough to admit them to another pen and not their mothers, when I 
feed them with a few oats, corn and bran. When four months old they 
weigh from 45 to 60 pounds. In the spring they go on the old pasture and 
wood lot; after harvest on the mowing lots, reserving a field for fall pasture. 
With that treatment the ewes give me a good lamb and 8 pounds of wool — 
for which, in fair times, I got 40 cents per pound; the rams give me from 15 
to 20 pounds of wool; and altogether leave a nice lot of manure. Although 
they are not so handsome as some of the mutton breeds, they carry the 
golden fleece and pay 150 per cent, net on investment. My flock is reduced 
to 65, owing to sales made in Virginia to men who have fine flocks of Cots- 
wolds, who want to try Merinos. We have mutton to export, and have to 
import wool. — S. K. Crosby, in American Farmer. 

"Washing Sheep. — Sheep breeders and flockmasters are invited to give 
their opinions on the utility and propriety of washicg before shearing. 
Now, I don't claim that my opinion amounts to very much, or that I know 
much about the subject; nevertheless, I have an opinion, and if it is not 
worth mu<m, it will not cost much. I have grown some wool for twenty 
years, and have washed and sheared a good many sheep, have noticed how 
sheep have been washed around the country, and had long ago come to the 



108 LIVE STOCK. 

conclusion that washing sheep was more or less a fraud, and just so long as 
sheep are washed, just so long the fraud continues. In the first place, 
there is no such difference between washed and unwashed wool as buyers 
make (one-third). In the next place, the average man will make all out of 
the washing he can, and not one wool buyer in ten knows whether a fleece 
of wool has been washed or not. This I know for a certainty. I have seen 
a tight three-pound fleece shrunk one-third because the buyer was told it 
was unwashed, when the lot contained a dozen fleeces that would weigh 
from eight to ten pounds that was half grease and gum, that raised no ob- 
jection, that would waste more in cleansing than the tight fleece would 
weigh; and three-fourths of the wool that is sold is not bought on its merits, 
washed or not washed. So much per pound is the ruling price for certain 
kinds of wool, dirty or clean, nothing is held oat to induce a wool grower 
to wash his wool clean and put it up nice, when he gets the same price as his 
neighbor who ducks his sheep once and passes them out of the water which 
scarcely reaches the skin. But it can be said of these sheep, they were 
taken down into the water and came up out of the water, and therefore their 
wool was well washed. A man to be a good judge of wool must have some 
experience in either growing it or handling it in some way, but most of the 
wool is bought by agents without experience either way. A fleece of firm, 
nicely-crimped Merino wool, where the sheep have been housed through 
the winter, never looks as well after being washed as before; it looks 
mashed and crumpled, and loses that shiny gloss that it had before wash- 
ing, and an agent must have practice and judgment to understand these 
things, which many of them do not possess. It requires more nice discrimi- 
nating judgment to handle wool than most any other product of the farm, 
and yet much of it is handled by men that are not judges. 

My opinion is that wool should never be washed on a sheep's back. It 
induces wool growers to go through the mock ceremony of washing when 
they don't intend to get out a particle of dirt, and then tell the buyer it is 
thoroughly washed, and he don't know the difference. Hence, more wool 
is bought without the exercise of any judgment than any other way. A 
buyer who understands his business don't need to ask whether the wool is 
well washed or not. His judgment will tell him this. If he depends on the 
word of the producer for this information, he will not always get an answer 
that is strictly true. I don't mean to say that wool growers are more dis 
honest than other men, nor quite as much so, for half the buyers will cheat 
in weight if you give them a chance. There is just as much sense for a 
man that has fat cattle to sell to tell the buyer they are very fat when they 
are not, as for a man to say his wool is washed clean when it is very dirty. 
No buyer would take the man's word on the cattle, but would buy on his 
own judgment. Just so it should be on wool. Yet it requires more experi- 
ence on wool than on cattle. The only correct way is to shear without 
washing, and then there is no deception on the part of the grower, and no 
chance for any; and if he asks more for his wool than it is worth, and the 
buyer pays his price, nobody is to blame. 

And then there are other objections to washing. Some people have to 
keep up the old custom of getting a jug of whiskey, or some old, hard, sour 
cider, that would make a hog squeal to taste of, and get about half drunk, 
which is an objection in a moral point of view. And many times sheep are 
half drowned by indifferent or careless handling, and become so exhausted 
they have to be drawn home in a wagon, which is taken along for the pur- 
pose of picking up the ones that have fallen out by the wayside by bad 



LI VE STOCK. 109 

usage. Then many persons take cold from going into the water, not being 
used to it. In conclusion I would say, everything can be urged against 
washing and nothing in its favor, for, God knows, people are strongly 
enough inclined to be dishonest without any inducements held out to them 
to be so.— Granger, in Ohio Farmer. 

Treatment of Sheep Rot. — Rot in sheep is perhaps a more serious 
form of parasite disorder than husk or " worm in the throat," even if it is 
not so widely diffused. As we have explained, the malady is due to the 
ravages of the fluke (disloria hepaticum) in the liver, the worms being in- 
troduced in the inchoate state in the bodies of fresh water molluses, which 
are swallowed by sheep when feeding in water meadows or wet lands, or 
when drinking from stagnant ponds. 

The process of the liver rot is slow or rapid, according to the circum- 
stances in which the animals are placed. If the flakes are few in number, 
and the food in the pasture is of tolerably good quality— and especially if 
the flock-master, aware of the character of the land, has taken the precau- 
tion to supplement the grass with manger food, as hay, meal or oil-cake — 
the sheep may remain some time before they show much evidence of de- 
rangement; but more commonly the grasses on rotting lands are unsub- 
stantial, water food, and the sheep have to suffer from inanition, besides 
the disturbance to the digestive functions which results from the parasites 
in the liver ducts, and in such cases the disease proceeds rapidly to the 
stage of extreme emaciation, and the mortality is often considerable. At 
best the animals are worthless. We lately heard of a breeder who sold a lot 
of ewes affected with rot at the rate of 15 cents per head, and it was remarked 
at the time that they were dear at the price. 

The existence of rot is generally ascertained without much difficulty by 
the appearance of the animal. In the early stage a peculiarly watery and 
pallid appearance of the eye is a symptom on which the shepherd places 
his chief reliance, The final test, however, is the detection of flukes in the 
gall ducts, and usually an opportunity will occur for a post-mortem exam- 
ination, which will place the matter beyond doubt. 

Liver rot being known to exist in the flock, the question of treatment 
naturally arises, and there are several points which require consideration. 
First, it is well to be quite certain whether or not the sheep became infected 
on the ground where the disease was discovered. A mistake in this direc- 
tion may be serious, because it is most important that the animals should 
be removed from the place where the larvae of the fluke are to be found. 
It will often be ascertained on inquiry that the sheep have been recently 
purchased, or that they have been feeding in other pastures; and it may 
be the case that the ground on which the sheep are at the time of the in- 
vestigation is perfectly healthy. When it appears on inquiry that the affec- 
tion has originated in the pastures where the animals are still feeding, it 
becomes a mere common sense proceeding to move them to higher and 
drier land. If from any cause this essential step caunot be taken, treat- 
ment is not likely to be of much use. Experience has proved over and 
over again that rotten sheep have a fair chance of recovery if they are taken, 
in the early stage of the disease, to a bare, dry pasture, where they will be 
required to hunt their living; whereas, if they continue on the wet ground, 
even if they do not take up more larval forms of flukes, which most likely 
they will do, there is little opportunity for the restoration of the tone of the 
digestive organs, and the majority of the sheep will die of debility — many 



110 LIVE STOCK. 

of them after the flukes have been expelled. Undoubtedly, the successful 
treatment of rot necessitates the placing of the infected animals in a favor- 
able position, and supplying them with dry, nutritious food, with the addi- 
tion of salt, both in the form of rock salt— which maybe scattered about 
their leediug ground— and bay salt, which may be mixed with the manger 
food, so that, as near as may be, every sheep may get about an ounce per 
day. 

How to Raise Slieep Successfully. — There is a general impression, 
says a practical shepherd in the Cincinnati Times, among those who do not 
Know, that by means of sheep a great deal may be made out of nothing. 
We may frequently see absurd statements to the effect that " the sheep's 
foot turns all to gold; " and that there is no readier or surer way to ferti- 
lize a barren field than to put a flock of sheep to pasture upon the briars 
and weeds in it; that, in effect, sheep will live upon the poorest food and 
make the richest manure, and are thus the very best stock a farmer c;m 
keep on his farm. But those "who have been there" know better. 
" Sheep are always an unhappy flock," and many a man who has been de- 
luded in keeping sheep in the vain hope of finding gold in their foot tracks 
has found out " the truth about it." 

Now, having been through the mill and turned defeat into victory by 
disabusing my mind of the common fallacies about sh^ep, I warn intending 
shepherds that there is no other domestic animal that needs better care or 
food for profitable thrift than sheep; that out of their finely grinding ma- 
nure will come nothing that is not first put into the hopper: and yet with 
proper care and skill a well selected flock of the right kind of sheep in the 
place can be made to pay 100 per cent, on their cost every year. It is true 
that a flock will clear a field of weeds, briars and rubbish, and will enrich 
it; but it will not live upon these alone. To relish this rough herbage the 
sheep must be fed liberally upon supplementary food, such as bran meal, 
cut clover, grass or green fodder and always a pint a day per head of lin- 
seed oil-cake meal, bran or other grain food. Then, with this alloy, the 
sheep's foot will take on a golden tinge, and will edge with gold the farmer's 
pocket, by making his poor lands rich; giving him at the same time a lamb 
or two and a fleece every year. A field may be enriched, too, by sowing 
rape seed, at the rate of a peck per acre, and when the crop is of a thrifty 
growth the sheep may be turned in to cut it down through the late fall and 
early spring, thus fitting it for a crop of corn, oats or roots next year. But 
the sheep must have their pint per day of bran or oil meal even then. 

The fact is, sheep are manure spreaders rather than manure makers. 
We feed them with the material; they take their pay out of it, and give us 
back the remainder transferred into a substance of equal value — because it 
is more available — with that which they revived, and they get fat mean- 
while doing it. Just as we give the mint a bag of gold dust and we get 
back exactly the same weight of gold dollars, while the coiners have fed 
upon it; but without the dust we get no dollars. So with sheep; if we 
dou't feed them with the materials needed to make fat for themselves and 
rich manure for us, they will be as unprofitable as Pharaoh's lean kine. 
And this is " the truth about it." 

Incidental Slieep Husbandry. — One of the strongest of the elements 
thai have brought disaster to efforts at slieep husbandry has been the de- 
sire to do a big business. Men reared to other callings, seeing the profits 



LIVE STOCK. Ill 

others were reaping from well-directed efforts at sheep husbandry, have 
hastened to become the owners of flocks; while still others, who have made 
money from a few hundred sheep, have become imbued with the idea, " the 
more sheep, the more money," and have soon placed themselves beyond 
the bounds of prudence, by incurring indebtedness on the one hand, and 
more care and labor than they are able to bestow on the other hand— both 
have b( en overtaken by the disaster their temerity invited. To a majority 
of farmers small flocks— that is, numbers remaining in the hundreds— will 
be the most profitable. The exceptions to this rule will occur to every care- 
ful student of sheep husbandry. Not only can the highest profit upon in- 
vested capital be thus rendered more certain, but the disappointments that 
occasionally follow the best of plans, and the most careful manipulation, 
are by no means so disastrous. Where sheep are handled as an incident to 
general farming operations — the plan now contemplated — care should be 
had that they do not trespass upon the other interests. When the farmer 
feels that his sheep are a burden— that is, that they are drawing upon the 
other departments for the time and feed not before assigned to them — he 
should fatten, and sell down to such number as will conveniently work 
along his crops and other live stock. Local butchers will always pay a fair 
price for a few good wethers, and some neighbor can usually be found ready 
to make room for a few more desirable store sheep. As the facilities for 
enhancing the numbers of the flock improve, the annual drafting may be 
confined to full-grown wethers, and such ewes as, b>reason of age or other 
disqualifying peculiarities, are desirable. The flexibility of a small flock is 
one of its strongest recommendations— enabling it to be accommodated to 
the circumstances or ambitions of the owner more readily than any other 
life-stock property. — National Live Stock Journal. 

The Sheep Industry—There is no kind of stock which will pay the 
farmer better than a few sheep. We do not advise any one who has not had 
experience to start with a large flock, but rather with a tew, and learn the 
business by actual demonstration. Sheep will be cheap after shearing, and 
they are cheap now. Let us see, good sheep can be purchased for $3 to $5 
each, and they will afford an income irom the wool of at least $2, and a 
lamb worth from $2 to $4. The first flock of sheep we ever owned we bought 
of a neighbor at $2.50 each in the late autumn. The wool the following 
year sold for enough to pay for the sheep, and left the sheep and lambs 
clear, not counting the keeping. Every farm can support a small flock of 
sheep, and the keeping will hardly be felt. In the spring they may be 
turned into the field designed for cows, and here they can remain until the 
ground is all plowed, and then if there is a field in which it is proposed to put 
buckwheat, they can be run there, and in this way no extra pasture is re- 
quired. A little grain can be fed to sheep if the pasture is light, to make 
up deficiencies. There is no stock with which a little grain goes so far to 
make good condition. It promotes the growth of the fleece and also of the 
body. Sheep are so little trouble that a farmer can care for them however 
short-handed he may be. A child eight years tf age can look after the 
sheep. They do not require to be fed in winter more than twice a day, as 
the racks well-filled in the morning will last all day. Early lambs will 
always sell at a high price, and lambs always sell for a price above other 
meat. Old ewes should be avoided, as they shear light fleeces and 
are hard to winter. Unless a ewe is specially valuable it is a good 
plan to turn her off when five years old. This is when the teeth are full 



112 LIVE STOCK. 

and while they are in perfect shape for the mastication and rumination of 
food. 

Some farmers buy ewes in the summer and have the lambs come in win- 
ter and then sell them and fatten the old ewes, thus turning off the entire 
flock yearly. This is a good way to enrich the farm, and it always is profit- 
able, as the ewes, by feeding them in the pasture, will be ready for mutton 
by winter, and thus the feeding of hay may be avoided. Good store sheep 
can always be purchased at the stock-yards. The farmer must be careful 
not to take home with him any of the infectious diseases sheep are subject 
to, namely, scab or foot rot. These can be detected by a careful examina- 
tion of the flock. Wool has gone as low as it will, and from now on the ten- 
dency will be for a slight rise. A rising or a steady market is an encourag- 
ing feature for an investment. — Our Country Home. 

Spring Feeding of Ewes— The woolly coat of the sheep is well calcu- 
lated to resist the dry, cold weaiher, but it sheds rain or snow poorly. 
Consequently the thaws of February and March, with their frequent rains, 
slush and mud, are the hardest portion of the winter for unsheltered sheep. 
When to the inclemency of the weather of the season is added the clogging 
of the appetite, after months of feeding upon dry food, a little extra care is 
absolutely essential to the keeping of our flocks in constant thrift. 

For breeding ewes this care is especially necessary as the lambing-time 
approaches, as they cannot endure the strain of maternity and milk-giving 
without serious loss, unless previously fortified by judicious care and lib- 
eral feeding. 

It is possible to feed too liberally, and thus induce a tendency to par- 
turient fever; but this mistake is less often made than that of allowing the 
ewes to so run down in flesh that when the milk drain begins they soon be- 
come mere skeletons. 

Milk cannot be made from nothing; if the material for its manufacture 
be not found in the food it will be taken from accumulated flesh of the 
body, and if no surplus flesh has been accumulated the secretion of milk 
will either cease or material will be drawn from the muscles and other tis- 
sue which is absolutely needed for the maintenance of health and strength. 
No more melancholy sight is ever seen in the sheep-fold than that of a 
poor half-starved ewe, with a scrawny lamb tugging at her for the nourish- 
ment which it vainly seeks. 

One of the serious faults of our methods in stock growing is the neglect 
to provide succulent food for our animals at lambing, calving, and farrow- 
ing time. Such provision might be cheaply made by sowing rye in the fall, 
or by growing a crop of beets or turnips and saving for this purpose, but 
how few of us do either of these ? In default of such feed the ewes should 
have an extra allowance of grain from now until the grass comes. This ju- 
diciously given, will give them strength and enable them to withstand the 
drain of milk-giving; while its cost will be more than repaid in the extra 
growth of lambs and wool. For this purpose bran, oats or shelled corn 
will be found the best food, with a spoonful of oil meal occasionally to each 
ewe. Corn meal is not a good food for sheep, being more liable to surfeit 
or scour on it than when fed on whole grain or bran.— Our Country Home. 

Value of Fleeces—Wool buyers have to know the value of fleeces as 
Boon as they see them, for their own interests as well as those for whom 
they buy. We have seen buyers who did not, but they had to learn or quit. 



LIVE STOCK. 113 

Wool growers ought to know what their fleeces are worth as well as the 
buyers. Some do, some never will, and some do not want to. Well-fed, 
carefully handled sheep will produce even fibered, strong, elastic wool, 
worth several cents per pound more than from sheep of the same class 
which have been badly treated. Still the farmer that has poor wool thinks 
he ought to have the same price as his neighbors, because their sheep are 
of the same blood exactly. As a rule, buyers do not tell what they see of 
merit in fleeces; they see the poor qualities and are quick enough to men- 
tion them. They do not care to tell a painstaking sheepman that his wool 
is worth more than his elovenly neighbor, especially if they can buy it at 
less than it is worth. 

Commission men send their circulars out free of charge to wool growers 
who are likely to consign their clips to them. By them, wool growers may 
become familiar with the different grades of wool and their market value. 
If they are at a loss to class their wool, a sample may sent by mail, with 
postage stamps for an answer, and the commission man will name the class 
it belongs to; or a visit to any manufacturer may be pleasant and profitable 
in these points. 

Wool buyers do not propose to teach wool growers. It is not to their in- 
terests. If they can make the grower believe his wool is of a lower grade 
and buy it so, they are likely to do so. It is one of the tricks of the trade 
and held as fairly legitimate. We do not charge dishonesty to all wool 
buyers in this, but urge upon wool growers to have their own values upon 
their clips and stand up for their own rights. Wool growing has too much 
profit for others than the growers. They deserve more and the others less, 
and the cure is often in their own hands. If the traveling buyer won't pay 
what the clip is worth, ship to some reliable commission man. 

The Way to Handle Sheep— A great many men will catch the sheep 
by the wool on the back with both hands, and lift the animal clear from the 
ground by the wool only. We have slaughtered a great many sheep in 
years past, and when removing the pelts of such sheep as had been handled 
by the wool, we never failed to observe that beneath the skin wherever the 
animal had been caught by the wool, blood had settled. In many instances 
the skin had been separated from the body so that inflammation was appar- 
ent. We have known proprietors of sheep to be so strict in regard to hand- 
ling them, that they would order a helper from the premises if he were to 
catch a sheep by the wool on any part of the body. When about to catch a 
sheep, move carefully towards the one to be taken, until you are sufficient- 
ly near to spring quickly and seize the beast by both hands, then pass one 
hand around the body, grasp the brisket, and lift the sheep clear from the 
ground. The wool must not be pulled. If the sheep is a heavy one, let 
one hand and wrist be put around the neck and the arm pressed against 
the leg. We have always handled sheep in the way alluded to. We never 
grasp the wool. Others seize the sheep by a hind leg, then throw one arm 
around the body and take hold of the brisket with one. But ewes with 
lambs should never be caught by the hind legs, unless they are handled 
with extreme care. 

Treatment of Lambs. - For the first few weeks of a lamb's life its 
well-being almost entirely depends upon its mother. This being the case, 
ewes should be fed well, and a little oats and cake should not be grudged, 
especially for those which have twins to support. With regard to the sum- 






114 L1VK STOCK. 

mer management of lambs, the farmer should bear in mind the following 
rules, which are necessary to the development of fine sheep: Frequent 
change of pasture; the continuance of dry food in the form of bran, bruised 
oats, and oil-cake; access to rock-salt; constant care and attention; shelter 
in very hct weather. In addition to the above points to be observed, an ex- 
amination of the lambs should be made now and then to see that their feet 
are m good condition, and also that their skins are not infested with ticks. 
It is a common saying that grass should be twenty-four hours old for sheep, 
and eight days old for an ox; hence the advisability of constant change of 
pasture. We do not believe in keeping sheep merely for the purpose of 
eradicating weeds and keeping down hazel-scrub, as is so often the sole 
reason for their presence on the western farm. There is profit in sheep 
raising, but none unless they have proper care and are made one of the im- 
portant features of the farm management. If prime mutton is to be pro- 
duced—and that is, perhaps, of more importance and profit than wool —the 
aim should be to keep the lamb-flesh on and steadily increasing until the 
sheep is ready to kill. To accomplish this is no simple matter; it requires 
skill, much care and well-selected food. Weaning- time is the most trying 
period in a lamb's life, and it is at this time that extra feeding is most nec- 
essary. Before weaning it is well to accustom the lambs to a small quan- 
tity of oil-meal daily — say two or three ounces— then as soon as they are 
weaned the oil-meal or cake may be slightly increased in quantity, and with 
good clover, sweet grass, and other green feeding, they should enter the 
winter season in good shape. By such feeding, sheep may be brought to 
good weights, fat, yet with plenty of flesh, at eleven, if not ten, months old, 
without forcing so as to produce disease, and without extravagant living. 

Abortion in Sheep. — Ewes in lamb are liable to abortion, or slipping of 
the lamb, also called slinking, as well as the cow, but not so mucb, and the 
complaint is not considered epidemic in sheep. Various causes produce it, 
such as exposure to severe weather in winter, having to endure much 
fatigue in snow, leaping ditches, crowding through narrow gateways, being 
worried by dogs, over-driving, a too free use of salt. But that which is apt 
to cause it more than anything else is the unlimited use of turnips aud suc- 
culent food, though this may not be attended with danger in every season. 
Abortion may occur at all periods of pregnancy, but is most frequent when 
the ewe is about half gone. It sometimes occurs very extensively, and be- 
comes of serious consequence to the sheep-owner, disarranging all his 
plans, as well as occasioning a severe pecuniary loss. The symptoms first 
manifested are dullness and refusal to feed; the ewe will be seen moping 
at a corner of the told, and will be heard to bleat more than usual. To 
these succeed restlessness, and often trembling, with slight labor pains, and 
in the course of twelve hours abortion will have taken place. By way of 
treatment, prevention is the most important part; and prevention consisls 
in avoiding the causes which we have mentioned. As a peculiarity oc- 
curring after abortion, we would mention that the wool is apt to come 
off of the ewe in spring. The immediate cause of death in fatal cases of 
abortion is inflammation of the uterus or womb.— Western Rural. 

A Cow Tail Holder. — This ingenious little device will be found very 
convenient and serviceable by dairymen and farmers during fly time. To 
make it, take two foot of No. 9 wire. Make the coil (A) in one end one and 
a half inch in diameter; turn up the end at B a little. Now make a small 



LIVE STOCK. 



115 



eye at the end (D), and make the loop (C) to fit the leg, as shown in the 
sketch. To use the holder, put the switch, or a part of it, through the coil 
(A), putting it through from the side where the end (B) comes. Then put 
it over the end (B) and tighten. This makes a firm knot, and easily taken 
out. Now put the loop (C) over the leg, front of the gambrel joint, and 
your holder is on. It will cost about two cents. 

Medicines for Farm Stock— Professor Brown, Veterinary, in the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, tells the farmers how 
to make up a convenient " medicine chest" for the domestic treatment of 
animals. The following is his list of remedies, with the doses, arranged in 
alphabetical order: 

Aconite, Tincture, (Fleming's) — Action sedative, allays fever, and exter- 
nally relieves irritation. Dose: horse or ox, ten to thirty drops, sheep, five 
drops. Add water in proportion of a teaspoonful to each drop of tincture. 
For a lotion use a tablespoonful of the tincture to a 
pint of water. 

Alcohol in the form of whiskey or brandy or 
strong ale, is useful for cases in which the system 
requires to be temporarily raised from a state of de- 
pression. Doses: horse or ox, whiskey or brandy, 
four to eight tablespoonfuls; sheep, one to three 
tablespoonfuls. Strong ale, horse or ox, one pint; 
sheep, one-half pint. Repeated two or three times a 
day. 

Aloes. — A purgative for horse or ox. The ordinary 
aloetic mass and the solution should be kept at i 
hand. Both preparations must be obtained from a 
druggist. Doses: horses, four to six drachms of ' 
the aloetic mass as an ordinary purgative, or one- 
half pint of the solution. Usually given in combina- 
tion with linseed oil in cases of continued constipa- 
tion. 

Ammonia Liniment.— Made by adding a strong 
solution of ammonia and oil of turpentine, one-eighth 
part, to soap liniment. A pint bottle of it, carefully 
stoppered, should be kept at hand. The liniment is useful as an applica- 
tion for sore throat, and for all cases in which an external stimulant is 
necessary. Must be applied with the hand and well rubbed into the 
skin. 

Areca-Nut.— A useful worm medicine. The nuts should be kept in a 
stoppered bottle, in a dry place. When required for use the quantity 
should be grated by means of a nutmeg grater. Doses: horse or ox, one- 
half ounce to one ounce of the grated nut, mixed with the food (corn and 
bran); sheep, two drachms; dog, one-half to one drachm. 

Calves' Cordial — A form of chalk mixture for calves and sheep. To be 
prepared by a chemist as follows: Prepared chalk, two ounces; powdered 
catechu, one ounce; ginger, one-half ounce; opium, one drachm; pepper- 
mint-water, one pint. Dose: calves, two to four tablespoonfuls; sheep, one 
to two tablespoonfuls. 

Carbolic Acid — A powerful caustic antiseptic, ordinarily used, in combi- 
nation with fifty to 100 parts of water, as an antiseptic lotion to unhealthy 
wounds, and ior disinfection purposes. 




A COW TAIL HOLDER. 



11G LIVE STOCK. 

Carbolica] Cotton and Gauze— To be obtained ot the druggist. Valuable 
antiseptic application to wounds. 

Castor Oil, also Linseed Oil— Purgative. Doses: horse or ox, one to two 
pints; sheep, four tablespoonfuls. 

Colic Mixture — Equal parts of laudanum and sweet spirit of nitre, and 
one-eighth part of chloric ether. A half-pint bottle of it to be kept at hand. 
Doae: horse or ox, two to four tablespoonfuls in three parts of a pint of 
water. 

Electuary — A soft mass compounded with honey or treacle. Must be 
prepared by a druggist as follows: Camphor, two ounces; powdered myrrh, 
licorice-root and nitre, of each eight ounces; extract of belladonna, two 
ounces, treacle, enough to make a soft paste. Dose: horse or ox, a portion 
of the size of half a walnut, to be put at the back of the mouth two or three 
times a day with, a stick. Useful in colds, sore throat and influeuza. 

Ginger— Stimulant. Forms an essential part of all cordial powders for 
exciting appetite. May be given with strong ale in cases of prostration 
from overwork or disease. Dose: horse or ox, one to two teaspoonfuls of 
the powder in a pint of ale; sheep, one-fourth of the quantity. 

Mercurial Ointment (blue)— To be purchased ready for use. Valuable 
to promote the growth of hair, and in some forms of skin-disease. Only 
small quantities may bo applied. 

Mercurial Ointment (red)— Biniodide of mercury. A good form for 
blisters in cases of splint, or after sprain of tendons. 

Nitre (Nitrate of Potash)— Diuretic and fever medicine. Dose: horse or 
ox, two tablespoonfuls daily in drinking water, or halt the quantity in the 
food; sheep, one teaspoonful in the food. 

Salts (Epsom or Glauber;— Common purgatives for cattle and sheep. 
Dose: ox, twelve to sixteen ounces dissolved in a wine bottle of hot water 
(a tablespoonful of ginger may be added) ; sheep, four to six ounces. 

Salycylic Acid — A valuable antiseptic, effective in the treatment of foot- 
and-mouth disease. Dose: four tablespooniuls of the acid are to be put in 
an earthen vessel, and dissolved in a quart of boiling water; hot water is 
then to be added to make a gallon. This solution is to be used to syringe 
the feet, and lave the mouth and nostrils, and also to wash the udder, 
and finally to sprinkle over the litter. Haifa pint of the solution may be 
added to the gallon of drinking water every day. The dry acid (powder) 
may be sprinkled on the feet after they have been syringed with the so- 
lution. 

Santoniue— Used to expel worms; one of the most effective agents for 
Thin purpose. D0B6: lior.se, fifteen grains, with three drachms of aloes; to 
be given in the morning before feeding, and repeated after two days. 

Sulphur ( Flowers of Sulphur)— A very valuable alterative. Dose: horse 
or ox, a tablespoonful, with a teaspoonful of nitre, to be given in the food 
once a day; sheep, quarter of the quantity. Sulphur mixed with any com- 
mon oilh forms an excellent dressing for mange or surfeit in animals. 

Turpentine, Oil of Stimulant to the skin. Internally used to expel 
worms. Useful in " husk in calves." Dose: a tablespoonful daily in half a 
pint of a mixture of milk and i-^n; lambs, one-quarter of the quantity. 

Vaseline— Emolient to the skin. Effective in irritation of the surfaoe, 
chapped heels, mud fiver, especially if mixed with one-eighth part of tns- 
nitrate of bismuth or carbonate of lead (white lead) or oxide of zinc 

Zino, Chloride of— -Mixed with fifty to lot) parts of water, it may be used 
for the purposes for which carbolic acid is employed. 



L I YE STOCK. 117 

Tick Persecution. — There were more sheep ticks last year than ever 
before, writes Col. F. D. Curtis, in the Km-al New Yorker. Where they all 
came from is a mystery. It is said by old farmers that when sheep run in 
the woods they will always get full of ticks. My sheep did run in the 
woods, and they were very ticky. This fact might prove the theory, but 
other people's sheep did not run in the woods, and they were also very 
ticky. I think condition has more to do with ticks, and with the effects 
Irom the weather also. Thin stock always seem to invite parasites of all 
kinds. This is the case with cattle and the lice which infest them, and also 
with hogs; aud why not with sheep ? I think sheep were universally poorer 
the past autumn and winter than I ever saw them. The reason for this 
condition was the excessively cold and wet season, which is opposed to 
sheep doing well. The spring a year ago was cold, wet, and backward, and 
Bheep carried their fleeces very late. This helped to lay a foundation for 
ticks, as it helped to make the sheep poor. The food sheep eat helps the 
tick business. If sheep are so feed as to be puny, they will have more 
ticks; these seem to delight in a poor condition, and to want to be in at the 
death, to help finish up the poor creature they are preying upon. 

The remedy for ftiese depleting and destructive pests is care and sheep 
dip. The famous sheep breeders of Washington County, Pennsylvania, do 
not have any ticks on their sheep. They will not have any. So it seems 
resolution helps to keep clear of them. I have adopted the same idea, and 
have resolved to try to carry it out. To do this involves early shearing, 
which has been done, and as soon as the weather will admit, each sheep 
and lamb will be dipped with Lawford's Sheep Dip, and again in the au- 
tumn, and perhaps twice if necessary. The poor sheep should be put by 
themselves, and the best place for them is on some one else's farm, and it 
that cannot be done, in a pen by themselves. The amount of blood a good 
crop of sheep ticks will extract from a sheep or lamb is much more than a 
person imagines, and is always equal to the gain the infected and afflicted 
animal might make if the leeches were not at work. Unless the sheep are 
extra well fed they will run down rapidly, and they never gain anything 
however well fed. The farmer should never neglect his sheep and allow 
these parasites to prey on them. They make the poor sheep mad with pain. 
I sheared a lot of sheep almost in midwinter to get the best of the ticks, 
and if it had not been done the animals would have died, as they ran down 
in spite of food. 

After sheep have been sheared the ticks go on the lambs, to return to 
the sheep when the wool gets out. 

Ihe dipping should take place in about two weeks after shearing, and 
care should be taken not to let the sheep get its nostrils under the liquid. 
Fools and boys should not dip sheep; it should be done by careful and 
humane men. The owner should be on hand to attend to the business, the 
same as when sheep are washed. It is barbarism to set a lot of crazy boys 
and reckless men to do such work. The liquid may be put in a tub, and 
the sheep dipped in and well saturated. It should then be lifted on a tight 
platform, slanting toward the tub, and allowed to drain off, the liquid run- 
ning back into the tub. The waste of tobacco strips boiled does very well, 
if the deooction is just strong enough to kill the ticks and not to injure the 
sheep; but I prefer the sheep dip as safest, and much less troublesome. 

Don't Tickle Him — Many drivers fall into the bad habit when curry- 
ing a horse, or when passing him, of tickling him in the flank. By this 



118 LIVE STOCK. 

practice a sensitive, playful animal becomes in time a biting or a kicking 
one, and has the vice confirmed. In the city many horses are spoiled by 
thoughtless men or boys, who tease them as they stand by the curbstone; 
hence the muzzle becomes necessary. Don't tease the horses. Owners 
should admonish their hired help about this and the mischievous results. 

A Device for Preventing Hogs from Rooting.— We give an engrav- 
ing of a jewel for hogs, which is of English make. It consists of a light iron 
roller a half inch in diameter and an inch and a quarter long, through 
which passes a light nail rod six inches long. That portion of it which 
passes through the ring and the shoulder is hammered round. The shoul- 
ders are about a half inch in length. The arms are flat, pointed sharp like 
a horse-shoe nail, and are about two and a quarter inches long, measuring 
from the shoulder. The snout of the animal is punctured just beneath the 
rooting ring of the snout, the sharp flat ends of the arm pushed through up 
to the shoulders, and, with a split iron rod made for the purpose, the ends 
are rolled, twisted, or nicked on the top of the snout, in a way which ren- 
ders it impracticable for the hog to get rid of his jewels. 

Large and Small Swine— Large, white pigs have been very popular 
in England, where bacon and hams are largely consumed. We have im- 
ported into this country good pigs of some of these breeds, which have 

made a good reputation, 
and among them the best 
known is, perhaps, the 
large Yorkshire. This 
name, however, is not ab- 
solutely distinctive, for the 
large, white breed is not 
to prevent hogs FROM rooting. peculiar to any special 

county in England, where 
the large Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Lincolnshire pigs are ail classed as 
the large, white breed. These three counties adjoin each other, and there 
is really no essential difference between the pigs of the several localities, 
except as individual breeders take pains with their herds. This race of 
swine, which is popular in that part of England, has been much improved 
of late years, although the writer, when in that country as long as thirty 
years ago, met with many animals which weighed from seven hundred to 
nine hundred pounds, and these were considered as nothing unusual as to 
size. A good deal has been said and written of late of early maturing pigs, 
animals which will reach a profitable weight at nine months old. But it is 
altogether a matter of fancy whether an animal should weigh three hundred 
pounds in nine or ten months, or three times that weight at three times the 
age. Certainly there is something in the uses to be made of the pork which 
has an influence upon the manner of feeding the anhnals, and it would not 
do to have all the pigs of a very large size. For some uses large sides and 
hams are desirable, and it is beyond question that the ni€>at of a fully ma- 
tured pig has some qualities which make it preferable to that of a pig forced 
to great weight before its muscles have been matured. For some purposes 
fat is more valuable than lean, but generally " a streak of lean and a streak 
of fat " in pork makes it most desirable for foods. The large English breeds 
have this peculiarity, and on that account are preferred by many feeders.— 
Br. Thurber, in Agriculturist. 







LIVE STOCK. 119 

Overcrowding of Stock. —The overcrowding of stock on farms is one 
of the worst leatures of many stockmen's management. From such over- 
crowding come the poor, scrubby animals which so much disgrace and beg- 
gar our markets; they are run-down farms which may be seen in almost 
every neighborhood. Too close pasturing will, in a very short time, ruin 
the best farm in the country. By cropping off the grass too closely the root 
is injured and the teuder plant destroyed, and the ground becomes packed 
and hard, from the stock having to tramp over it so much to pick a scanty 
living. But if a judicious system of pasturing is followed, the land will be- 
come better year by year without extra care and fertilizing. By this we 
mean that the pasture should never be eaten so short as to expose the grass 
roots to the sun, to be dried and burned. Then if the grass is not too 
closely cropped by the stock, it will furnish a slight mulching and keep the 
ground moist and mellow, thus materially increasing the growth of the pas- 
turage. Besides ruining the farm, stock raised in the way such manage- 
ment necessitates, cannot possibly yield a profit. The outcome will be very 
materially changed if a number of the poorest are disposed of, and the same 
feed and care given to the remainder which was formerly given to all. This 
is so evident to the intelligent farmer that it is scarcely necessary to enter 
into any detailed discussion of the fact; but still it is quite common for many 
farmers to stock their land more heavily than it will bear, with the idea 
that their profits will be increasing in proportion. But a greater mistake 
was never made. Go to a farmer who follows such a system, and see his 
bare run-down fields, and scrawny, under-sized stock, which will bring but 
little more than half price in the market. Note, too, that his fences, build- 
ings and even himself, have the same run-down appearance. Then com- 
pare with another farmer who follows a judicious system of pasturing and 
see the sleek, contented looking cattle and horses, his green fields, and the 
other appurtenances of the farm in keeping. The difference can be ac- 
counted for in no other way than by the different farm management. The 
one overcrowding and half-starving his stock, the other feeding well, never 
overstocked, and his fat animals always meeting a ready and fair market. 
This alone will account for the same natural advantage. 

Stable Floors — Prof. I. P. Roberts has two strong objections to wood 
fur stable floors. It is not durable, either rotting or wearing out in a short 
time, making it sometimes dangerous to the animals, and expensive to re- 
new; second, its capacity for absorbing stable liquids renders it offensive 
and unwholesome. As a substitute, he recommends cement. For ground 
floors begin below frost and lay a foundation with any large stones, ram- 
ming them down well. Level up by filling in smaller ones till an elevation 
is reached for a gutter and the platform the animals are to stand on. The 
small stones should be secured by a cement made of one part Portland ce- 
ment and two parts sharp sand, and these same proportions should be ob- 
served in laying all the floor above the small stones. The only wood he 
would tolerate about the floor would be enough to cover the platlorm on 
which the stock must stand. He would have stock stand on wood rather 
than on cement, because it is more comfortable. The plank would be held 
in place by nailing to joists bedded in the cement. For an upper floor he 
used with entire satisfaction a course of cement covered with another of as- 
phalt. With a free use of absorbents, an upper floor so constructed proved 
durable and perfectly tight. To prevent wood floors from rotting he recom- 
mends putting an inch or two of salt under them. 









120 LI YE STOCK. 



Saddle Horses for Farmers. — Why don't our farmers ride more on 
horseback ? asks the American Agriculturist It is strange that a people 
descended directly from the English, whose lives may almost be said to be 
passed in the saddle, should have so entirely abandoned this healthful and 
convenient means of locomotion. It is very rare to find, on an ordinary 
farm, a saddle and bridle suited for better work than the plowing of corn; 
and to find a thoroughly good saddle, one easy for the horse and easy for 
the rider, is almost impossible. We cherished the hope that one of the 
many beneficial effects resulting from the recent war would be to stimulate 
the use of saddle horses among those farmers who passed three or four 
years in cavalry; but, possibly, they may have been surfeited, as, indeed, 
the writer was, by an overdose of a rather disagreeable kind of horseman- 
ship (poking along at a slow gait on rainy and wearisome marches), and 
did not, as a general thing, have an opportunity of riding good horses in a 
pleasant way. 

We fancy that one reason why there is not a more active general demand 
for really good saddle horses in America is, because every effort to obtain 
such an animal is pretty sure to result in disappointment. Til** article does 
not, in reality, exist in this country, except in such rare cases as not to form 
an important exception to the general rule. The saddle horse should be 
lithe, short-backed, strong-loined, long-necked, free in his action, and per- 
fect in his temper. Such an animal is susceptible of any amount of train- 
ing that an amateur rider may choose to give him; but, in the furore for 
trotting horses that rages throughout the whole country, where almost every 
point that is desirable for the saddle is disregarded, and attention is wholly 
given to the making of time by mere propulsive power, which is almost the 
least desirable thing for saddle use, it seems quite hopeless to look for the 
breeding of the desired animal; and the result that we have long hoped for 
must be sought by slow and easy stages, and through a stimulus which 
can be secured in no other way so well as by the adoption of horseback 
riding by farmers, and their sons and daughters. In going about the farm, 
in going to the post-office, in paying visits, and in all journeying where 
heavy articles are not to be carried, the saddle horse ought to be used here, 
as he is in nearly all other countries of the world; and if there is any class 
of the community who should use him regularly, and should, as a matter 
of pride, know how to use him thoroughly well, how to ride strongly, grace- 
fully, and securely, it should be the robust young farmers of the country. 

In England, where it is estimated that, during the hunting season, a 
hundred thousand people ride daily to fox hounds, fully one-half the num- 
ber being farmers, who go out to enjoy the sport or to practice their sale 
horses, there is, of course, a more active demand than can be expected in 
this country, at least for a very long time; but, even at this day, in the New 
York market, a perfect saddle horse, nearly thoroughbred, perfectly bitted 
and broken, and in all respects suited for the use of a lady or gentleman, 
may be readily sold for from $2,000 to $3,000. And when we consider the 
fact that the animal belongs to a race that arrives at early maturity, while 
his whole training may be incidental to the doing of errands and the neces- 
sary recreation of the younger members of the farmer's family, it seems to 
us that the opportunity for a combination of pleasure and profit should be 
enough to induce the giving of greater attention to the saddle horse question. 

Good Cows for Poor Men. — Every poor man who can afford to do so 
naturally keeps a cow; but he generally makes the mistake of keeping a 



LIVE STOCK. 121 

cheap cow, that is, a cow of poor quality. Spending from $40 to $60 for her 
purchase, he secures an animal that, on not very abundant food, but still 
kept at some expense, supplies the family with enough milk for their use. 
He considers the operation a profitable one, and undoubtedly it is so. 
Many poor men would be inclined, we fancy, to think us wild in advising 
them to pay so much as even $100 or $125 for an extra good cow; the best 
that can be found in the neighborhood; yet we are confident that in a 
majority of cases, clue care being given to the animal's health, cleanliness, 
and ample nutrition, the profit would be very much greater than with an 
inferior animal. Probably the average of cows kept for the family use of 
poor men will not give more than 1,500 quarts of milk per annum, or, at the 
most, 1,800 quarts. This amount of milk, in the family of the ordinary 
mechanic or laborer, is worth five cents a quart for home consumption — 
say $75 or $80 a year. Out of this sum is to bo paid the interest of the ani- 
mal's cost, her depreciation in value, and the price of purchased food, which 
is more or less according to the circumstances under which the family live. 
For $125, even in other districts than those which are chiefly devoted to the 
keeping of cows, an excellent animal, frequently a grade Ayrshire or Short- 
horn, may be purchased, that will give with good care, on rich food, not less 
than 4,000 quarts of milk per annum. Instances are not rare of the yield 
reaching even 5,000 quarts. "With such an animal we will suppose that, as 
in the previous case, 1,500 quarts are consumed by the family, and are esti- 
mated to be worth $75. This leaves 2,500 quarts of milk for sale; and, in 
almost every village in the land, this milk may be readily sold at the door 
for six or eight, and not seldom for ten cents a quart. At the least price — 
»ix cents — the total amount of sales would be $150, which would pay for the 
extra food required to keep this larger animal in the b^st condition, and for 
the increased interest and depreciation, and leave a handsome profit besides. 
Any cow must be sheltered, fed, milked, and generally attended to. The 
amount of labor required in the case of the better animal is in no respect 
greater than in the case of the poorer one. The profit of the operation is a 
real profit, and no small account should be made of the greater satisfaction 
and pleasure that result from full milk-pails than from those half-full, from 
fine cows than from " scrubs." It is a return to that old principle that 
whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well; and if it will pay to keep 
any cow at all it will surely pay to keep the best cow that we can afford.— 
American Agriculturist. 

A Stable Luxury. — A stable luxury to a cow is a light fly blanket, to 
be used while milking. In some of the European countries, especially 
where women do the milking, the cows are always blanketed while being 
milked, summer and winter. It is a practice we may well copy in this 
country. We blanket our horses to protect them from flies while standing 
in their stalls, and why not our cows while we are milking them ? Every 
farmer has old sacking in which fertilizer or wheat bran has been bought, 
and which may be easily sewed together in a suitable size and shape for a 
blanket to cover a cow. There should be one for each milker. Three sacks 
sewed together without ripping them open will usually make a blanket 
large enough to cover a large cow, and which no flies or mosquitoes will 
reach their bills through. Most of the annoyance from cows' tails being 
switched about one's face and ears while milking, may be avoided by using 
such a blanket. Many cows learn the trick of throwing their hay around 
upon their backs and sides while eating, to keep off the flies, and not a little 



122 LI VE STOCK. 

is thus wasted under their feet. It is well during fly time to keep a stable 
pretty dark at milking time, and all the time if cows are kept up through 
the day. A cow that is constantly tormented by flies will give much less 
milk than she would if kept constantly comfortable. It pays to treat our 
animals kindly and to keep them happy and contented. 

Cheap Shelter for Cattle. — A common excuse for the barbarous prac- 
tice of wintering cattle at the stack-yard, says the American Agriculturist, 
is the want of capital to build a good barn. For the prosperous farmer a 
convenient barn, as near the center of his premises as possible, is doubtless 
the most economical arrangement. But almost every farm furnishes the 
material for " hovels," with very little expenditure of money, and a tem- 
porary hovel may be made quite as comfortable as a barn. Our Irish fel- 
low-citizens have a genius for this kind of structure, and one often sees by 
their rude houses, shelters for the poor man's cow, that are models of com- 
fort, if not of beauty. He has but one to provide for, and its walls and roof 
are thrown up in a day; but if it pays the poor man to provide shelter for 
his cow, it certainly will pay the large farmer to shelter his herd. Select 
dry ground for your hovel, and, if possible, the southern slope of a hill or 
the south side of a grove. Plant a row of posts ten or twelve feet apart, 
and eight feet high, for the rear of the hovel, and a second row, twelve feet 
high, about twelve feet in front. These rows of posts should be extended 
according to the number of cattle to be accommodated, allowing three feet 
for the smaller animals, and four for the larger. Boards or slabs may be 
used for the siding and for the roof, if these are available. Doors should 
open to the south, at convenient distances. A long feeding rack is con- 
structed at the back side of the hovel, and the cattle are tied up, fed, and 
attended as if in a barn. The stacks of fodder are made immediately 
around the hovel, with reference to convenience in feeding. This is not so 
easy as to feed from the barn floor, but it involves very little more labor 
than foddering from the stack-yard, where the hay has not only to be thrown 
over the fence, tut scattered widely, to give every animal a fair chance. 
Not nearly as much hay would be wasted by trampling, and about as much 
would be saved by shelter as in the best constructed barn. If lumber is 
scarce, the siding and roof may be made of straw, bog hay, sedges, sea- 
weed, or even of the hay that is to serve for fodder. Thatch, well put on, 
will last nearly as long as shingles. Siding of straw, a foot thick, packed 
between poles, will last several years with slight repairs. But the stacks of 
hay may be so arranged as to form the most of the siding, and if the hay 
knife be used, the part next to the hovel may be left to the last, and be fed 
out in spring, after the extreme cold has passed. This style of hovel is 
much used upon the prairies, and in the new settlements, where timber is 
scarce, by the more careful farmers. It might often be used to advantage 
by all farmers in the North, who have not sufficient barn room for their cat- 
tle. It is as valuable for manure making as for shelter. If the floor of the 
hovel be covered a foot or more thick with muck, peat, or surface soil, well 
dried, it will absorb all the valuable parts of the urine, leaving only the 
water to leach away into the earth. The whole floor may be treated as in 
box stalls, adding loam and straw as they are needed to keep the cattle 
clean and comfortable. All the manure of the cattle would be saved in this 
way, and it would add greatly to the riches of the farm. One great advan- 
tage of these cheap shelters would be a great saving in the carting of ma- 
nures. If the hovel were located as it should be, upon the field to be 



LIVE STOCK. 123 

broken up for corn, the manure would be already upon the ground for 
spring use. The only labor would be to compost the manure, and spread 
it for plowing in. This would give relief to the teams at a time when all 
their strength is wanted for the pressing labors of seedtime, and by adopt- 
ing this plan the remote fields of the farm might be kept in good heart. 

To Rear Fall Calves— A dairyman should always raise his heifer 
calves, as he can do it much more cheaply than he can buy them and get 
far better ones. When butter is made there is no difficulty in rearing calves 
in the following manner: The calf is not permitted to suck the cow, but is 
taught to drink the first meal, and after the fourth day the milk is set for 
cream, and the calf gets only skimmed milk. The milk is warmed to 
the temperature of new milk constantly until the calf is three or four 
months old. The quantity of milk given, at first, is three quarts at a meal 
three times a day, and this is gradually increased as the calf grows. When 
two months old the calf is taught to eat a little bran and meal and this 
helps it very much. Calves reared in this way make excellent cows; large, 
thrifty, and docile, and give no trouble sucking each other or sucking cows. 
It is a mistake to suppose that calves need cream; if they need any fat in 
their food it is more cheaply and quite as well given in the form of oil meal. 

The Water Used by Animals— Poor drinking water has killed much 
live stock, and the following is pertinent: When we consider the quality of 
drink suppiled to hogs we have yet greater cause to wonder that the 
amount of disease is not greater. Horses, cattle, and sheep are given 
comparatively clean water, because they will not drink filthy water unless 
forced to do so, and because the opinion justly obtains that foul water is to 
them destructive of health; but hogs are given, or rather circumstances 
are allowed to supply them with foul water, because inherited tendencies 
and education are such that they will drink foul water, and because the 
opinion unjustly obtains that they are not so injuriously affected by foul- 
ness of drink as are other animals. But we certainly ought to know, and 
certainly we are fast learning, that foul drink is just as productive of a dis- 
eased condition of the body when drank by a hog as when drank by a horse; 
and as we learn more of the nature and cause of swine plague, we under- 
stand that, so far as the health of the animal is concerned, we would better 
give foul water to the sheep, cow, or horse than to the hog, for foul water 
prolongs the life and favors the vigor of the bacillus, and whet* drank intro- 
duces the germs of this most virulent of all swine diseases directly into the 
bodily organs. It we would sately preserve the health of our swine, we will 
not force them to drink water from pools, ditches, and creeks, but will sup- 
ply them with water from a well, protected from impurities. 

How to Make Good Veal — To raise calves for veal a writer says to 
take your calf off the cow at three days old; have a muzzle made for it 
similar to the one they sometimes have for dogs. Keep it in a clean, dry, 
airy, but darkened room, and feed it nothing but pure and skimmed milk, 
warm as if fresh from the cow, two or three times a day; give it all it can 
take and it will get fat in six or eight weeks. The muzzle is for the pur- 
pose of preventing it from taking straw, hay and other foreign substances. 
The darkened room is a great factor in this fattening process, as it keeps 
the calf quiet and induces it to sleep a great deal, which greatly hastens the 
fattening process. The method is, of course, only for raising calves for 
veal. If the object is to make milkers of the calves, they need the exercise 






124 LIVE STOCK. 

and slow growth of slower methods. Good veal is too much a rare object 
in the market, and calves properly fattened should bring enough more than 
ordinary calves to pay well for the extra trouble, if it can be c died trouble, 
to keep them quiet in a dark room. 

Loss of Hair on a Horse's Tail—The loss of hair on a horse's tail is 
generally due to some disease of the skin, chiefly caused by congestion. 
The irritation and itching thus produced impels the animal to rub the tail 
against any rough object, and so wear off the hair. This truuble is to be 
treated as follows: The skin should be washed with cold water and soap, 
and then dressed with carbolated cosmoline, or a mixture of four ounces 
tincture of Spanish fly, one ounce aqua ammonia, four ounces of glycerine, 
and one quart of water. This is to be continued daily until the hair regains 
its growth. As the origin of the trouble is in a disordered condition of the 
blood, this is to be counteracted by one ounce of hyposulphite of soda, 
given daily for three or four weeks. 

Disease of the Eyes. — Breeding from animals whose eyes are diseased 
invariably produces progeny having the same defect, and the tendency to 
blindness is thus constitutional in them. This accounts for the prevalence 
of ophthalmia in horses, and that variety ot it called moon blindness. 
Skillful treatment may evade the results of this hereditary defect. Every 
care should be exercised to avoid injury to the eyes. The air of the stable 
should be kept pure; abundant light should be admitted to the stable, 
from the front or on two sides and directly into the stall. Dust should be 
avoided, and no hay or fodder should be put above the horse where dust 
could fall from it into the eyes. The eyes should be bathed frequently 
with cold water, and if inflamed should be bathed with a w r eak solution of 
alum. 

Sows Eating their Pigs— The Deacon beat me badly on pigs, writes 
a correspondent of the American Agriculturist, and the way it happened 
was tins: I bought a big fat sow a short while before her time was up for a 
big price, calculating on a dozen pigs at least. She was a little too fat ac- 
cording to my notions, but then would not light feed reduce her, and make 
her chance for a healthy litter as good as that of a lean, half-fed animal ? 
Would she not give better milk, and would not the pigs grow all the faster ? 
Besides, breeding sows were scarce, and it was this one or nothing. She 
had thirteen pigs on a cold, windy day, six of which died, in spite of Sam's 
most careful nursing. But there were seven left, and two-months-old pigs 
would be worth thirty cents a pound— rather a cheerful prospect. At a 
week old one was strangely missing. It could not have run away, and 
there was nothing to carry it off. Sam said the cannibal had eaten it alive. 
He administered a pound of raw pork in slices with the next feed, and the 
evil was checked there. The Deacon had a lean, wild-looking animal, 
with a fair proportion of snout, so accustomed to rooting that it took two 
rings to keep her in anything approaching wholesome check. She had the 
run of a small pasture, or what once was pasture, for in spite of the rings I 
noticed that grass was uncommonly scarce, and dead turf plenty. 1 do 
not think her rooting propensity was much abated by the rings. This 
lean, mean-looking animal had eleven nice pigs, and raised them all, The 
Deacon says he never loses pigs in the fall, when the sows can have plenty 
of fresh grass, roots, and grubs. Sometimes he has lost them in the spring, 
when the sows were kept shut up and confined principally to corn-meal 



LIVE STOCK. 125 

diet. His philosophy of pig-eating is this: Swine like some animal food, 
and especially roots, for which they are furnished with a natural digger. If 
they can have access to the ground, and get plenty of grubs and roots, their 
natural appetite is satisfied. If kept upon board floors or in small pens, 
and fed principally upon meal and slops, they have a great craving for flesh, 
and not infrequently devour their own offspring. He says the leaner you 
keep a sow, the more she will root and gather worms and grubs. I think 
the Deacon carries his philosophy rather too far, but it may be, like most 
stories, founded on fact. He recommends feeding sows that have this pro- 
pensity to eat pigs, with some raw animal food, such as butcher's offal, and 
plenty of roots, in connection with the ordinary provender. 

Blanketing Horses. — It is not unusual for over-kind and very careful 
people, in very cold weather, to put on a heavy blanket under the harness 
of their horses when about to drive to town or to church, says the Amer- 
ican Agriculturist. This practice, although intended as a humane one, is 
not to be recommended. While the horse is performing his work there is 
no danger that he will suffer from the severest cold, or that his natural 
clothing will not be enough. Indeed, unless his work is very slow, perspira- 
tion will be excited, and the moisture thus arising would be retained by the 
blanket, instead of being immediately dissipated into the air. The conse- 
quence is, that, the moment we stop, our horse stands in the cold winds, 
with a wet blanket over his whole body, the effect of the evaporation of the 
water being to make him much colder than he would be if the blanket were 
then taken off. The true plan is, in cold weather, never to blanket a horse 
while he is taking his exercise; and never allow him to stand a moment 
without blanketing with a dry blanket, when his exercise has ceased. So 
true is this, that the most careful and experienced owners and drivers of 
fine horses find it advantageous to remove even the heavy coating of hair 
that nature supplies for the winter season, so that there may be no accumu- 
lation of moisture about the skin in consequence of heating work; and to 
supply its place, at all times, when the animal is at rest, by ample clothing. 

a Breaking " Horses — This is the word commonly used—*' breaking " a 
horse. It is wrong. Nothing needs to be broken, but everything to be 
guided. Teaching is a much more appropriate word to use than " break- 
ing." The education of the horse is the important consideration, and, as in 
the man, it should begin at an early age, and be a gradual development, 
growing with the growth and strengthening with the strength of the horse. 
It is impossible to crowd everything into a horse's brain in a lew hours or 
a few flays. Cramming is no better in educating the brute than in educating 
the man. 

In the first place the horse must be made to feel that you are its friend; 
that it need fear no harm or hurt in your presence so long as it in no way 
acts viciously. All improper action should be promptly and firmly re- 
strained, but no unnecessary harshness that will cause extreme fright or 
fear should be resorted to. In this, as in the case of the child, it is more 
difficult to make it understand what is wrong than how to do many things 
that are right. But patience, perseverance, and gentle punishment for 
wrong-doing will in time have their desired effect. When once the horse 
knows what you want it to do, and has learned to look upon you as its 
friend and even its protector, it will freely obey your wishes, if you make 
them manifest in a way that the horse understands you. 






126 LIVE STOCK. 

There is a wide difference in the disposition of horses, as of men, and 
some horses, like some beasts, are practically untamable. They lack the 
necessary intelligence oftentimes, but have all the vicious propensities. 

But more horses are spoiled by improper handling and usage than are 
naturally worthless because of lack of intelligence and possessing a vicious 
disposition; and an intelligent horse made vicious by ill-treatment is even 
worse than a stupid one. Patting or petting a horse that does wrong is a 
great mistake; and it is about as great a mistake to fail to do this and make 
the horse feel your approval when it does right. Overloading, or in any 
way discouraging, is one of the worst things that can possibly be done to a 
young horse. If it fails to start the load, and you punish it, who can say it 
does not feel that it is punished for making the effort ? If you pet it, possi- 
bly it may think it is an approval of its failure. In either event, it is a bad 
case, and should always be avoided in handling a young horse, and espe- 
cially a colt. Few old horses will pull with all their might many times with- 
out refusing to try again. Mistakes in handling make more balky and 
vicious horses than all other causes put together. In fact, they are almost 
the only cause of these evils. — National Live- Stock Journal. 

Oats as Food. — There is probably no food so good for recuperating ex- 
hausted muscles as good, sound, heavy oats. They are easily digested, 
nutritious, muscle-building, and blood-making in a high degree. They are 
little heating, do not tend to make horses sweat, and on the whole are the 
best food a horse can have. Barley is very good, but not equal to oats. 
Indian corn is a poor substitute, not so easily digested, heating, and causing 
the animal to sweat. As to system, a horse should have hay first, then 
grain, and water when these are digested; or water should be given half an 
hour at least before feeding. Horses often have dyspepsia, induced by be- 
ing fed when warm, or being worked after a full meal. The practice of 
feeding hard-worked horses at noon and working them immediately after is 
of doubtful utility. Horses will go eight and probably ten hours without 
food if properly fed at evening and morning. They should have water 
more frequently, but never when hot. 

Protecting Horses from Flies.— Flies may be kept from annoying 
horses by making a wash of carbolic soap and water, with a small quantity 
of kerosene oil added to it. This is sponged over the horse's coat and let 
dry two or three times. Its effects remain for about three or four hours. 
By repeating it at intervals the flies may be prevented from annoying the 
poor animals at this season. Another remedy is to procure Persian insect 
powder; put a quantity of it in a common flour dredger or large pepper box, 
and dust it well into the hair. This is sure death to flies and harmless to 
animals. If it is blown up into the air of the stables at night and dusted 
well upon the posts and ceiling, as well as the animals, these will enjoy a 
good night's rest. It will also clear flies and mosquitoes from rooms. Yet, 
the best protection from flies is a full sized cover when in the open air and 
a rather dark stable when at rest. 

A Wound from a Nail— Punctured wounds are difficult to heal, be- 
cause the deeper part of a wound must heal before the surface to get rid of 
the inflammation, and if the surface heals first and the wound closes the 
deeper parts cannot heal. Wounds by a nail in a horse's foot should be 
treated as follows: The opening in the horn should be enlarged with a sharp 



LIVE STO CK. 127 

knife, so that the bottom of the wound can be reached with the point of a 
syringe. The wound is then dressed by forcing to the bottom once a day a 
little tincture of myrrh and aloes, and then closing the opening with a plug 
of tow and covering the foot with a thick, soft pad of cloth dipped in cold 
water and a bandage to keep it in place. The wound will then heal gradu- 
ally up to the surface. The wet bandage will keep down the inflammation 
and allay the pain. 

Cowpox and its Treatment— The hard lumps on a cow's udder and 
teats, and which are surrounded by red inflamed rings, are the pustules of 
cowpox. This is contagious, and spreads from one animal to another if 
care is not exercised. The disease is not at all serious, but goes through 
a course of three weeks and then disappears. The pustules dry up, leav- 
ing scabs which fall off. If, however, the scabs are broken the sores may 
become painful and difficult to heal, sometimes running together and form- 
ing ulcers. The treatment is to give one ounce doses of hyposulphite of 
soda daily, and to dress the pustules with a mixture of glycerine two 
ounces, carbolic acid, one drachm. This should be done twice a day. 
The affected cow should be kept away from the others, and milked after 
them. If they interfere with the milking silver milking tubes should be 
used. 

Discharge from the Nose of a Colt. - A thin milky discharge from a 
horse's nose indicates catarrh. That the mucus or pus sinks in water is 
not any indication that the disease is glanders. All pus is heavier than 
water, having a specific gravity of 1.033 to 1.035, and that it floats at any 
time simply indicates that some air is entangled in it. The discharge men- 
tioned is due tocatarrb, its long continuance proving some permanent in- 
flammatory condition of the bronchial and nasal membranes. The treat- 
ment should be as follows: Give an ounce daily of hyposulphite of soda; 
syringe the nostrils with warm water in which enough carbolic acid is dis- 
solved to give a decided odor, and feed a warm bran mash daily in which 
the above medicine is given. 

Impaction of the Rumen, — When a ruminating animal, as a heifer, is 
suffering from indigestion through eating hard, coarse, woody food, as brush 
and ripe leaves in woods or swamp grass, the undigested food is packed 
hard in the third stomach, or maniplies, and dries by reason of the conse- 
quent inflammation into hard cakes between the folds. The result is great 
distress, fever, and stoppage of the excretions of the bowels. Death ensues 
in a few days. The disease is commonly called dry murrain. The remedy 
is to give copious injections of warm water and to give plenty of thin gruel 
with a pound or two of Epsom salts dissolved in it. The best remedy is to 
avoid the cause. 

Spots on a Colt. — There are various causes for spots on the skin of a 
colt. They may be produced by a parasitic plant which grows in the folli- 
cles of the skin and causes small white, scurfy spots. These often appear 
on the nose or the rectum, and are accompanied by excessive itching. The 
remedy is to apply carbolic acid mixed with twice the quantity of glycerine 
or tincture of iodine, using a small brush, so as not to spread the fluid over 
the healthy skin. Also to give one ounce of hyposulphite of soda daily for 
two or three weeks. The feeding of a bran mash twice a week is always 
useful in such cases and beneficial under all circumstances. 



128 LIVE STOCK. 

Big Jaw in Horses. —The disease of the bones of the head of a horse 
known as big jaw, or big head, or really osteo sarcoma or fibrous degenera- 
tion of the bone, is incurable unless treated properly at the first appearance 
of it. The bone becomes honeycombed and the solid substance sloughs 
away through an abscess, which discharges very fetid matter. When this 
stage of the disease occurs hope is past. Previously the horse may be 
given one ounce daily of hyposulphite of soda, and the abscess injected 
with carbolic acid diluted with twenty parts of water to one of acid. 

Treatment of Sprain in the Hock.^A sprain in the hock joint will 
be apt to result in a spavin by the spread of the inflammation to the cover- 
ing membrane of the bone and consequent deposit of bony matter around 
the joint. The only means of prevention is repeated blistering, by which 
the inflammation is drawn to the. surface. One blister should follow another 
until all the inflammation disappears. Rest is required during treatment. 

Diarrhoea in a Calf. — Diarrhoea is often caused by giving too much 
sour milk to calves, and too much new milk will cause it by producing indi- 
gestion. The best remedy the writer has found is to give a pint of hot new 
milk, and no more, four times a day, and after the disease is stopped to 
return to the ordinary feed slowly. 




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Garden — Orchard and Vineyard - Small Fruits — Live Stock — The 
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A BOOK THAT SHOULD BE IN EVERY AMERICAN HOME 
II 








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It will likewise be found of 
great value as a work of reference. The book Is profusely and elegantly illus- 
trated, and is conveniently divided into departments, as follows: 

Biography.-— History. —Natural History. — Travels, Manners and 
Customs, etc. —The World Illustrated.— Useful Arts and 
Manufactures. —Trees, Plants, Fruits, etc. — Great In- 
ventions. — Mining. —Wonders of the Sea. — 
Familiar Science. — Law for the Masses. 
— Statistical and Miscellaneous. 

All the above subjects are fully and ably treated in this valuable book. It 
is a vast storehouse of useful and entertaining knowledge — unquestionably 
one of the best and most valuable books ever published in any land or 
language. No cyclopedia ever heretofore published at twice the cost is to be 
compared with this book in point of artistic make-up, beauty and excellence 
of illustration, and quality of contents. As a holiday or birthday present for 
any one nothing more appropriate or acceptable could possibly be selected. 
The Family Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge is a large and handsome 
book of 544 pages. 12mo, printed upon fine paper and elegantly bound in cloth, 
embellished with artistic designs in black and gold. It contains Two Hun- 
dred and Seventy-three Beautiful Illustrations, the original coal 
which was over $5,000. The book will be sent by mall, post paid, upon receipt of 
price, only One Dollar. It is as large and as handsomely gotten up as books 
usually sold at $1.50 and $2, and in the quality of its contents is worth a doz^n 
ordinary volumes. 

Address all orders: 

F. IH. L.IIPTON, Publisher, 

No. 3 Park Place, New York. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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